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dcxdpdabbles · 19 days

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Could you write something where Danny is a teen dad to de aged Ellie? Bonus points if he lives in Crimr Alley and beats the Joker to a pulp for hurting his kid

Danny is trying his best.

It's not easy being a father at age sixteen. It's not easy having to leave his home in fear of what his parents will do to his clone-turned-daughter.

It's not easy watching her every day, wondering if her core will break down further, and instead of just de-aging this time, she'll end up dead. It's not easy worrying about her health in the most crime-infested city with a terrible job and relying on his pitiful check or the funds his sister can sneak to him.

But nothing good in this world is easy, and he wouldn't trade Dani for anything. Yes, she had lost her memories and acted like a real two-year-old, but he adored watching her eyes light up as she relearned the world.

Danny loved her to bits, and even buying her those cheap coloring books and crayons from the dollar store made Dani smile brighter than any star. They may struggle to pay rent and bills or buy food, but Danny can always scrape by, keeping her warm, fed, and house.

He worked at three different dinners, each part-time, since none of them were legally allowed to hire him full-time because of his age. Danny didn't have a single day off, but he had a few hours every day with Dani, which was enough.

While he worked, he asked his next-door neighbor to watch Dani. Now, it may not be the best thing to trust a stranger with his daughter but said neighbor is a ghost and one of the friendly kind.

Danny met her when he first moved in. Apparently, her haunting was one of the reasons the rent was so cheap. She never gave him her real name, but she stayed with Dani all day and had enough ectoplasm to physically touch things. Danny could sense her intentions with his core and knew her motherly adoration for Dani was authentic.

Privately, Danny called her Three since she haunted apartment three, and she sort of looked like she stepped out of the nineteen-thirties, complete with an attractive Transatlantic accent. She was an up-and-coming radio co-host, taking a segment to read stories to housewives before being murdered in her home.

Three never said why or how it happened, but she had been haunting the apparent complex for so long; her lore was well documented among the locals.

They say one of the Waynes had killed her after learning that his wife had fancied Three. But it was never proven and it became another theory that the rich would laugh at every once in a while.

(Three's face always twisted whenever she heard the name Wayne. Her hand would always reach up for a heart-shaped locket she refused to take off even in death.)

Since most people couldn't see ghosts unless exposed to ectoplasm for enough time, the stories of her attacks on anyone trying to get close to her apartment snowballed out of control. Danny thought it was unfair how evil they made her sound. Though it's true she had a strong distaste for men, she had a soft spot for children.

Danny had just been through the wringer; he had double shifts, one stacked right after the other. One of the dinners had let two people go after they had been arrested for moving illegal substances, and Danny had to cover until they found a replacement.

A woman had yelled at him for almost thirty minutes straight about a wait time for her surprise party of fifteen. A man threw up on their counter, and to top it all off, a kid had run into him while he was carrying a tray of food, causing him to spill everything.

Thankfully, the mother was horrified and apologized profoundly, but it had been almost too much for him. So when he was sweeping up broken plates and saw Three franticly flying at him screaming about some clown, well, Danny was doing his best.

And his best was fighting things far stronger than he.

____________________________________________________________

Jim Gordon's early afternoon gets interrupted by the Joker only three minutes after he is supposed to head home for the day. After escaping from Arkham a few months ago, the clown went to the ground, and everyone was nervous about what he was planning.

Jim's team hadn't heard any whispers or had any idea what the Joker was up to, which made everything worse. Usually, when something big and wrong was going to happen, they would catch at least one thing beforehand.

That's why the sudden broadcast of the lunatic had everyone jumping out of their skins.

"Good evening, Gotham. I want to welcome you to tonight's show. It's going to be killer." Joker cackles. He has somehow hacked into almost every screen in the city, his white devilish face appearing on TVs, phones, tablets, and even roadside advertising.

His voice echoes through the city as Jim barks at his employees to trace the signal.

"Recently, I felt it necessary to remind everyone that one is never too young to have a funny bone." The Joker continues, holding up a plush toy to the camera. He waves it a little, pressing the ginning bunny as close as possible so people can see its mouth has been sewed into a sickly wide smile. "I'm sure a few of you have noticed that certain school buses never arrived home."

The blood in his veins goes cold. How many buses? Which school? What kids were they? How old? Why had they not heard of the kids not arriving until now?

There are too many questions and nowhere near enough answers. Jim hates how useless he feels playing this sick man's game.

"But not to worry! You'll see your little ones again! After being guests on my very own game show! Every thirty minutes, one lucky child will get to compete for your amusement, and if they survive, they get an extraordinary prize-!"

His words are cut short by a dark figure flinging itself at the Joker and punching him to the ground. Thank every dark cloud in the sky that the Bat was on the case.

"Basty! Have you come to play- wait. You aren't Batsy." Joker's delighted tone melts into anger as the figure straightens to a young teenage boy.

"You have my daughter. Give her back." The teen tells the clown, voice flat and cold. "Three said your goons took her from her balcony."

"My boys take a lot of people." Joker laughs hoping up a flower. With a press of his finger, the teenager is covered in Joker Vemon. Jim's heart falls as the boy stumbles back, rubbing at his eyes. Joker laughs harder until the kid picks up a chair and slams it onto his head.

There wasn't even a chuckle from the boy. Huh.

"You have my daughter. Give. Her. Back."

"Or what?" The Joker taunts, snapping his fingers. There are sounds of people moving, likely the goons. "Kill him."

The boy doesn't seem to react to the men rushing at him. Someone knocks the camera stand over, and the view of the fight is taken away as it rolls on the ground. Thankfully, it ends up pointed at a wall, where they watch the shadows of the teenager and the Joker's goons fight.

It's hard to tell who's winning, with all the shadows blending together whenever they get close, but the fact that he hasn't heard the kid drop yet means he's holding his own. Jim's eyes narrow at the wallpaper, trying to figure out why it looks so familiar.

It hits him just as a little girl phases through the wall. Yes, phases, as if walking through it like a ghost. This would make sense since -

"That's Nightowl Apparemtents!" Ricky, the new cop from Crime Alley, cries, echoing Jim's thoughts.

"It's what?" Asks Sara

"Nightowl apparements. It's the oldest place in Crime Alley and one of the most haunted. They said a lover of a Wayne was killed there. She kills anyone who tries to rent the place. They do ghost tours occasionally, but no one dares to her hallway. That wallpaper is famous because it's the only one in Gotham with the original founding families' symbols." Ricky explains, watching the little girl tilt her head and then start to flout. Everyone shivers as a second figure bleeds out of the wall behind her.

This one is much more blurry, but the faith outline of a beautiful woman covered in blood hovers behind the girl staring at the fight. She's dressed in clothes that Jim is sure was decades ago, and unlike the little girl, she makes him feel very unsafe.

The ghost of Apparement three. Barbara had gone through a paranormal phase when she was fifteen and dragged Jim to all the haunted places in Gotham. Nowhere had made him feel as uneased as Gotham's cemetery- the most haunted place- but those apartments were a close second.

The ghost spots the camera, sneering at it and Jim actually jumps back.

"Oh, gods!" Ricky shouts, turning his head away. "I'm so sorry for looking into your eyes without permission!"

"It's not a telephone! It can't hear you, Ricky!"

"That's not the point, Sara!"

"Daddy!" the little girl cries, holding up her finger. "I got an ow-ow."

At once, the sounds of combat stopped, and then the screams began. It's nothing like Jim has ever heard. He's been on the force long enough to know what a human in pain sounds like, and those sounds—well, he prays that the Joker had decided to bring in animals.

If it makes him sick to his stomach he is worried about the regular people watching.

The little girl doesn't look away, tilting her head to the side like a curious child of two would and still holding her tiny up. After a moment, Jim realizes the screaming has stopped. There is silence before Joker falls beside the girl, beaten beyond recognition.

If it weren't for his purple sit, Jim would have thought him a goon.

The little girl doesn't blink an eye as the teenager rushes to her, kicking the Joker.

"Let me the ow-ow." The teenager demands, taking her hand in his. There is a moment of tense silence as the woman's ghost louts around him with a sneer. "A papercut! You gave my daughter a papercut!"

The ghost woman screeches, rage in every part of her cry. Jim feels his heart beating out of his chest, frozen in absolute terror as she reaches down for the Joker and drags him through the floor.

The man's screams are heard even through the muffled flooring.

"Holy shit," Sara breathes, voice trembling.

"This is why no one with a brain messes with Nightowl's ghost," Ricky hisses, rubbing at his cross. "How that kid go it to attack the Joker and not him and his daughter-"

The teenager gathers the toddler into his arms, his image fading with a hiss.

"-That was a ghost. The teenager that beat the Joker to near death was a ghost." Ricky swallows. "I am never stepping foot down that street again."

Somewhere in Gotham, a woman is sweating bullets after the feed is cut by Batman, who arrives with the rest of the Bats minutes afterward.

"Say, Mom, wasn't that the boy you were yelling at today in Teddy's Diner for Uncle Ron's birthday."

The woman's eyes swing back to the TV, where the waiter's face is frozen on the screen, his green glowing eyes almost staring into her soul. "Yes.....yes it was."

"Oh crud. I think we're cursed now, Mom. Way to go."

#dcxdpdabbles #dcxdp crossover #Teen parent Danny #De-age Dani #Nightowl Apartment #Three was a Wayne lover but it was a throuple #The Waynes enemies killed her #Danny chilled her murderous rage out with his powers #Gotham is scared of ghosts now #The random Karen thinks the paranormal is coming for her and her kin #Part 1

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wandixx · 2 months

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Ghost of fries and Hero of cookies

All work words count: 14 593

Words in this part: 2 224

Summary of whole work: Duke wasn't expecting to wake up from his quick rooftop nap to some meta kid with fries. He also wasn't expecting kid to stay Or Danny asked Dani to stay safe while she was in Gotham. Where would she be safer than under the wing of local hero? And he looked like he needed bad day combo anyway

This part summary: First meeting and training discussions Beta read by @audhumla-sailor though English is second language for both of us, so proceed with this in mind. I also know all of the charaters through fics alone, so probably ooc. Stay catious if it's something you don't like

Duke was running out of fumes to run on. Last few days would be exhausting if it was just vigilante or just civilian stuff but no, he had to have it both. Because of Arkham break out he had been called in three nights in a row, not for a whole patrol but he couldn't exactly sleep it of during the day like others did, especially not in a week when every teacher decided they need to have test or quiz or what not. Naps meant he wasn't as sleep deprived as he could be but he needed far more. But he couldn't because crime in Gotham never sleeps so he had normal patrol to finish and there were about two ours left.

Would something bad happen if he just stopped for a moment and laid on a roof? Ten up to fifteen minutes. It was a slow day too...

Yeah, no, he deserved a moment to rest and if something disastrous was to happen in the meantime he would shame other Bats for not giving him enough time to sleep.

It certainly said something that he found gravel covering this roof to be quite comfortable. He set a timer for ten minutes and let himself close his eyes.

When loud screech of timer jolted him awake, he was suddenly fully aware that he wasn't alone anymore. He sat up a little too quickly.

"Oh, you're awake," white haired girl around Damian's age chimed, sitting cross legged just few feets away from him. She wore something that could only be described as an unholy mix of lab safety hazmat and skintight workout jumpsuit, white and black. When had Gotham gotten a new vigilante? "Good, I just returned from snack hunt," she added, gesturing at a big textile bag lying next to her. Duke didn't have enough brainpower to do anything more than ask.

"What?"

Girl shrugged, take out from BatBurger in her hand.

"You look like you have a bad day if not few days, so I've got you my cousin's bad day combo or at least closest thing I could. BatBurger burger isn't as good as NastyBurger but you certainly have better fries," as she spoke, second take out bag, 1 quart bottle of energy drink, juice bottle of same size and pack of convenience store brownies joined greasy paper bag sealed with a sticker.

"Is your cousin a speedster?" Excuse Duke, it was a totally valid question, he saw with his bare eyes both Wally West and Bart Allen when they visited Manor. Noone else would be able to stomach the amount of food they inhaled during their stays.

"Nah, we're not that fast or that hungry. Though I think I may get closer to speed of sound," So, clearly a meta if white hair and weir aura that let his eyes rest weren't enough indication "My cousin when he has bad few days he often forgets to eat so this combo has to help with there too. But I'll steal your fries of course."

Duke was not going to look gift horse in teeth, so he grabbed one bag and tore it open. There was classic combo with bigger fries and NightWings inside.

"Thank you..." he trailed off, hoping that girl would take a clue and introduce herself but she didn't. She just drowned her fries in ketchup and started munching. She had her own juice.

"My cousin always said that each part of this combo has different purpose," she explained instead, slightly muffled because of fries in her mouth, "This" she gestured towards fast food meal "is to sooth your stomach. This "she tapped energy drink "is to sooth your brain and kick it back online. This "she raised bottle of juice, "is to sooth your taste buds because energy drinks are war crime against them and this "she nudged brownies "is to sooth your heart because Ancients damn it, this day is awful and you deserve it. At least that's what he told me when I had day bad enough to deserve that," she shrugged, licking ketchup of her finger. Suddenly she froze "You aren't allergic, are you?

"No, I'm not," he confessed bewildered.

"Good"

For a long moment they sat in silence, devouring food the little girl brought. Duke distantly wondered if this was how night shift spent their snack breaks. It felt nice.

He was finishing his part of brownies when girl spoke up again.

"Do you feel better now?"

"Yeah" he was a little surprised to realize that it was true. He'll have to note down what she put in this 'bad day combo'. "Thank you"

"Don't mention it," she shrugged with general gesture of dismissal, "You're one of my cousin's favorite heroes because you're vaguely his age and handle Gotham alone during the day and I quote, "she did honest to God air quotes at that" 'As only hero in Amity-' which is a lie by the way, Val is doing great and even if he suddenly got problem with how she feels about his alter ego, he still has Sam and Tuck even if they're usually more of moral support. And I helped when I visited, so no, he isn't only one. Anyway as he said 'As only hero in Amity, my heart goes out for anyone who deals with this type of bullshit so Dani if you absolutely have to prank heroes, leave them out of it, especially Signal, he can't be older than Jazz, he doesn't need any more mess to handle.' All aliens and lanterns are also off limits because he is a space nerd. But you aren't space related so I'm like 80% percent sure he has celebrity crush on you," she slurped more juice, unbothered.

Duke was thankful he wasn't swallowing anything because for sure she would choke. He took split second to consider addressing... this whole situation and choose not to. He was not ready to be anyone's celebrity crush.

"Your name is Danny?" he asked instead.

"Dani" she corrected" with an I"

"Ok. It's nice to meet you Dani-with-an-I," She giggled, nodding her head slightly.

"It's nice to meet you too Signal"

Duke stood up, stretching a little. Dani joined him after hastily putting all the trash in her bag. She was a little higher than expected.

"I have to get back to my patrol"

"Cool," she drifted back a bit, making him realize that she was floating a few inches above the ground. She fixed her bag on her arm.

"Hey, can I hang out a little bit more? My cousin will go green out of jealousy when I tell him," she added with a mischievous smirk but Duke could tell there was more to it. He took a moment to consider it, which apparently made girl nervous "I can be invisible the whole time, like before," she offered, disappearing in the meantime. He could still tell where she was, because of her heat signature and other waves she excluded but for regular people she would be no different than surrounding air.

"Yeah, you can hang around and you don't have to be invisible. Just don't get in my way when I have to actually do some fighting."

She popped back to visible spectrum and pouted like Damian whenever he got benched.

"I can fight, y'know? I stopped mugging on a snack run."

It was ten god damn minutes, how could she get so much food and stop mugging in such a short time?!

Oh, right, superspeed. Still, impressive.

"I haven't seen it-" he started, channeling all Dick-trying-to-wrangle-Damian-into-socially-acceptable-activity energy he could muster "-so I don't know how you fight or even what powers do you have. If we tried to fight together we would trip over each other" It was a bare faced lie, Bat training made sure of that but he knew for fact that if he said anything else, the girl would be mad and probably did her own thing.

Was that what Bruce thought about all of them?

Oh no.

Dani still looked displeased but after a moment of consideration she nodded with a defeated sigh.

Suddenly she straightened like she got struck by lightning and whipped around.

"Wha-"

She just shushed, raising finger to her mouth. Duke did indeed quietened.

"I have enhanced hearing," she whispered "There is a mugging somewhere this way."

"Let's go then," he shot his grapple, waving his other hand at Dani to come with him before he jumped off the roof. He heard the girl giggle as she flew right after him.

"After this you'll show me the coolest gargoyles, okay? Sam asked for photos"

"Okay"

It seemed that the end of this patrol wouldn't be as bad as the start was. Hopefully.

And afterwards he was going to lock himself in his room until sky falls down or he was well rested.

Yeah, that was a good plan.

********

"Hey kid," Signal started, dropping from fire escape to cuff weirdo in clown mask who Dani just fought. He did it deliberately slowly to show her how to do it like he always did. She choose to not be to annoyed at being called kid again and noted to herself to come up with good codename later. All her previous ideas apparently weren't cutting it and she couldn't keep going by Dani because reasons.

"Yes?"

"Who gave you a combat training?" he asked getting up from a crouch and gesturing towards roof. So it's going to be longer talk, okay.

"My cousin," well, Flashes in Central taught her some stuff but it was more rescue and reassure type of deal not punch and kick, Sam tried to get her through basics of psychological warfare in activism, Tucker sweared he would teach her some programming and hacking but never got around to it, Jazz did some emotional training and Val offered to teach her Red Huntress skills when she got back, but yeah, all in all, Danny was the one to show her how to punch people. Even though it was more of 'shit we have to fight, observe maybe, idk' most of the time. She picked some tricks from Vlad too now that she thought about it, not that she planned to give him any credit for it, like, ever. "Why?"

"I have a bone to pick with him," vigilante announced, melting with the shadows. Dani sped as much as she could to beat him to the roof. She was competitive spirit like that.

Unfortunately he was first. She made another note to herself (she was so going to forget them in next five to ten minutes) to train her speed a bit more. She got tips from the guy with the title of The Fastest Man Alive for crying out loud, she shouldn't loose with the person who technically doesn't even have superspeed!

Signal sat cross legged on the gravel and tossed her a healthy granola bar. He kept doing it for some reason.

"I'm sorry to break it to you, but almost everything in your fighting technique is horrible. Your cousin did shitty job as a teacher" he started in warm slightly teasing tone. Dani felt attacked anyway.

"It's not like he has any sort of training either," she started, trying to sound nonchalant, rolling her eyes. "Cut him some slack," She bit a snack in attempt to cover her furry. It had chocolate and raspberries, was quite tasty and she was kinda hungry anyway. She wasn't sure she wanted to know how Signal knew it though "Everything he learned is from the trial and error by crashing through a few walls. Quite hard to care about 'technique'. I at least got his mistakes to learn from so don't you dare to speak about him like that!" alright, she lost it, she can admit it. But, Signal might be cool and Danny may or may not like him (she hoped he didn't, Val was much better option) but Gotham's hero had no right to say anything bad about her template. He didn't know anything. He didn't understand.

Signal looked like he was going to say something so she put her ghostly vocal cords to use and growled.

Don't-harm-family/will-fight/ protect-mine/don't-you-dare

She didn't stop to consider how unlikely it was for him to understand her. She crossed her hands on her chest, glaring.

Turned out, growl was enough of the warning. He carefully picked his next words.

"Sorry, it's not the way I should've phrase it," he started, his mouth doing the thing it did when people were embarrassed with themselves but in an uncomfortable, a bit angry way. He understood his mistake, good. She calmed her glare a bit. "I wasn't aware of you circumstances. If you want, I can show you some tricks, Batman is very throughout with his training"

"No, thank you, I'm good" she was still mad. So mad. And she was not pouting.

"Of course you're good but you can be better, more efficient."

"No." Whatever Signal would propose to her, she wouldn't agree. He said mean things about Danny not even a minute before. She couldn't let him have it on a principle!

"I'll give you a cookie after every training," he pleaded "The homemade, tasty one"

Well, that changed things. A lot of things.

"Yes please!"

He apologized anyway.

********************

Second part

I know democratic winner in poll for now is "publish all at once" and believe me, I respect democracy, especially now that I finally have rights to do things, but Tumblr wouldn't let me. Too long or something. So, it'll be in parts, sorry guys. I'll try to post all of the parts this weekend though (or one each day, I'll see).

Yes, I didn't have a name for this fic until five minutes ago, how did you know? It's quite alright though, I think. If you have better idea I may reconsider

#dpxdc #dc x dp #dp x dc #dcxdp #dani hangs out with duke #signal got new sidekick and he doesn't even know it yet #not fully at least #Dani: I'm going Goth(am)#Danny: Maybe don't?#Dani: Nah #Danny: Stay safe?#Dani: Alright *imprints on the first hero she sees*#this random mugger Dani stopped: Last thing I saw was feral racoon child #police officer: what?#almost mugging victim: I was saved by said feral racoon child #police officer: What?!#Dani: Alright. Good deed for today done. They're calling my name in BatBurger to get my stuff. See ya!#Dani: I hope I can make it back before Signal wakes up #Police guy&mugger&victim: Did she kidnap our hero???#Dani: *fights*#Duke: With all due respect. How did you survive this long?! *died inside a little bit from stress*#wandixx writes #ghost of fries and hero of cookies #have a nice day dear stranger who got to this part

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wonik1ss · 3 months

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౨ৎ The Enemy To Lover ! — winter kim

pairing — non idol!winter x reader song rec : xo call me - vcha & here we go again - jini ( 1.3k ) warnings ! none ᯤ ^ ㅇ ^ happy reading ! ⸝⸝・ᘏᘏ

prompt : on a fateful Wednesday afternoon 2 people cut ties with you. but with cupid on your side you have 2 different paths to take to hopefully get back together with these 2 people by Valentine’s Day end! val event !

Drip.. drop.. drop.. drip

“Could you seriously stop?”. You eyes wondered to the redheads. You nodded and started to tap your feet. Reason? Blood circulation. If the girl asked. You had just finnished auditioning for your colleges play. There was supposed to be a ‘after party’ which was really you all just going to Danielle’s house to eat snacks and pray you got your roles.

Two minutes after you left the school the red head did too. You pulled up your scarf around your neck and braced for impact.

“So who did you audition for?”. The girl scoffed and put went to get her air pods out of her coat pocket. Even her air was cold. Totally not because it was dead fuck in the middle of winter.. right?

“Yua”. You tilted your head up towards the girl. She sighed again and stared at you.

“I auditioned for Yua”

“Oh! I auditioned for Han-“. The girl nodded and then put in her air pods. Rude.

“Hm”

“Nothing sorry”. You bowed and you could see the girls tongue poking at her cheek. Rude bitch.

As you attend at the girl heels clicking like Dorothy you saw your actual Dorothy running up to you.

“Sorry we couldn’t get here fast we didn’t know we needed two cars!”. Danielle ran to hug you and bowed to the other girl. The perfect Dorothy. As you smiled at Danielle the other girl scoffed.

“Winter are you ok sitting in the back seat? Haerin couldn’t cause she’s claustrophobic”. Translation she had a fat crush on Dani. Being the cat girls bestfriend you but you cheek and pretend to look ate the snow.

“It’s fine..”

“Oh and you too Y/n! Sunoo said something about it messing up his face I don’t really remember”. You nodded and as the bubbly girl turned around you followed. Too busy looking at the snow fall you tripped on air. For like the fifth time this day. You felt a hand on your arm and as you looked up Winter let go. You hit your head on the cars window and Ning Ning grimaced as she opened the door.

“You ok?”

“Mhm”. With out even looking you knew she was rolling her eyes. That was only the first awkward interaction between the two of you. Yua and Hana were friends. Best friends infact. But Winter didn’t seem to get that after the fifteen times you ran over lines with her.

“.. let’s.. let’s try that again”. Bless Mrs. Joys heart.

“I heard she really pretty”

“But then one of the boys will snatch her up!”. You sighed. Again and again Winter gave you dry ass lines.

“Ok.. um.. take five kids! There’s some cookies in the back if you want some”. You nodded and watched as everyone went back stage. You sat at the edge of the stage, and played both rolls.

“You know you could just ask me to rehearse lines with you”

“Oh.. sorry.. do you wa-“

“Sure”. You gulped as Winter sat next you. She put her lines face down and her hand on your thigh.

“Do you think yin’s in love?”

“Why do you say that”. That wasn’t dry..?.

“The way she stares at him makes me sick but her.. I can tell she’s overjoyed.. to bad”

“To bad what..”.Closer… so close you could feel her breath on your skin.

“I.. I heard he.. gets around.. only likes her cause.. cause she’s new”

“Then we will protect her”. As Winter took her hand of your thigh the warmth and closeness left with it.. only for a second.

“But I’m like half his wait”. You laughed. This time Winter took her hand and put it under your chin.

“Repeat after me”

“Ok..?”

“Ofcourse your not gonna protect her”

“Of- hay”. Winter smiled as she went to pinch your cheek. Putting her hand under your pouting lips after.

“We just.. strongly disagree with any attempts she makes with him”. You nodded and started to look at the empty seats. Was that—

“Plus.. shouldn’t you be worrying about-“

“Oh stop!”. You shooed Winters hand away and she laughed.

“I know I’m working on it!”. Winter lifted her hand from beside yours and messed up your hair. Your cracked a smile and she did too.

“Can’t wait t-“

“Winter that was lovely.. the chemistry was great Y/n”. Mrs. Joy (she thinks using her first name makes her hip) grabbed both of your hands. Shaking winters more Joy playfully laughed.

“Why don’t you do that on stage?”

“The people I guess”. You didn’t miss the glance winter gave you before her face went stone cold again. After that she performed better but after she treated you were a fat piece of shit.

Now as your in your dressing chair you sighed.

“Can’t believe they cancelled the play and made it a ‘theater production’ cause they aren’t getting any hype anymore”. Yoon giggled as she applied some more mascara to your lashes.

“Translation Vice Principle A was made his daughter who got rigged in wasn’t getting any attention”. You giggled as Karina flicked Yoon’s head.

“She’s nice!”

“And can’t direct! She literally told me ‘do it again but like.. happier.. you know?’”. Yoon smiled as she sprayed setting sprayed and turned your chair to the mirror.

“Won’s just defending her cause she wants her sooooo bad”. Karina rolled her eyes and then ran out the trailer. Just then you saw a text from said girl ‘can anyone help me unpack the cameras? The rest left for break and I wanna make it easier on them”. You and Yoon looked at eachother and then burst out laughing.

“K I gotta go sneak into Won’s trailer to get that glitter she wears! It looked perfect on you and for Hana’s character!”. You nodded and then stared at yourself before. Then a wave of hair fell on your face. You tried to blow it up but it didn’t work. You heard a loud laugh.

“You watch too many romcom’s”. As winter approached you bit your tongue and tried to fix your hair. The girl put her head down on yours and you immediately stopped.

“You need help?”

“No..”

“If you go out like that you’ll look like that girl the crawled out of the tv”. As Winter mimicked the girl youlaughed. And she immediately stopped. She grabbed a brush and hair spray and got to working.

“You.. you ready for the change?”

“Ya if Miyoung finally lets Wonyoung direct”. You laughed and the girl patted your head.

“Don’t move your head to much unless I do it don’t wanna ruin your eyes”. You moved your eyes up and down and Winter burst out laughing.

“What you said don’t move my head!”. As Winter finnished she turned you around and stuck her tongue out. You tried to stifle a laugh.

“Wait..”. Winter then pulled out a silver locket necklaces and put it around your neck.

“Over heard Mrs. J saying they forgot the necklaces. Winter smiled as you looked up at her.

“Thanks”

“Not problem.. I’ll go now”. Before you could even speak you got alert telling you to get to set. Meaning your schools garden. After filming Winter was distant. The scoffs and eye rolling came back. As you went to your troller you saw a girl in an all pink uniform filling her nails.

“What is up with today? All these dumbasses fumbling I just can’t!”. The girl stood up and paved around the room.

“What-“

“I cupid! Name Wonyoung! You fumbled a really pretty girl now I make you got back in time and fix it! Or you will die alone sad and mad and bad!”. The girl pointed to herself and then pointed to two boys outside of your trailer. Through the window you saw them start to aggressively make out.

“Wo-“

“Yes or no?”

“Y-“. Snap.

Just like that you were back two weeks before you auditioned. In your room listening to laufey. You were gonna say ‘You must be crazy’.

#kpop fanfic #kpop #kpop idol x reader #kpop imagines #kpopidol #kpop gg #kpop smau #kpop girls #reader x idol #reader insert #onwednesdaywewearpinkevent

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rqgnarok · 11 months

Note

if requests are open, can i request jamie having a lightbulb moment realizing he’s into a male reader who’s very obviously shy/in love with jamie please? it doesn’t have to be that he realizes he likes guys but it could be? if you’re uncomfortable writing mlm relationships you can completely ignore this! no pressure ^_^ thank you!!

thank you for this! i've been itching to write jamie x m!reader! i hope you enjoy <3

"Don't get it, bruv," Isaac grumbles. "You buy 'em flowers, you take them to dinner, and they still won't get the hint. Women are fuckin' complicated."

"Men aren't exactly a walk in the park, are they?" Colin grumbles, his arm around Michael as his boyfriend presses a smiling kiss to his cheek, already familiar with this story. "This guy here spent months, months! Taking me out on dates before I realized we were dating."

"That might just be a you thing, hermano," Dani snickers, the guys laughing with him. "But I agree with Isaac. I always do the same when I have a crush on a girl: I make her a playlist of Mexican baladas and cook recipes from scratch. They never get the hint."

"Open communication is sexy," Michael pipes up behind his beer and murmurs of agreement fill the restaurant.

It's late, close to midnight, but Sam's always lenient enough to lend them the space for as long as they want. Everyone shares their own techniques of conquest: Rich gives them an expensive wine from his personal collection, Van Damme writes them notes about every little thing and leaves them scattered where they can find them, Jan Maas starts reading up on Dutch poetry.

At some point it's Jamie's turn to share, and he shifts a little in his seat at the sudden attention.

"Um, well," he stutters, playing with his napkin and ripping it into small pieces nervously. "I get touchy, I guess? Like, not in a creepy way, I just. More casual contact, you know? Like I'm drawn to them. And I laugh. I laugh a lot. Everything is funny, all of a sudden."

"That's everyone with a crush, though," Colin reasons. "There's gotta be something specific, no? Michael started wearing funny socks when we were dating, for some reason."

His boyfriend pipes up in offense, cheeks coloring. He says something about Colin listening to Britney Spears and binging The Kardashians when in love, which, for some weird ass reason makes sense.

Still, the momentary lapse in conversation isn't enough for the attention to slip off him, and Jamie keeps being badgered for information until he cracks. "Alright, alright! I guess I. I don't know, I. You know how I hate sharing my food. I guess I don't mind much when I'm... you know. In love and shit."

Finally, that's enough for the guys to move on to their next victim, but Jamie's thoughts stay stranded on his own answer. How did he know? He used to share plates with Keeley when they were dating, though his jaw would always clench a little in annoyance whenever she dipped in her fork without asking. It was a sanitary thing, really.

No, it was (Y/N) who sneaked into his mind when he said that. But that's different, ain't it? They've been friends forever, and it's different with guys, right? So what if Jamie doesn't care when he steals some of his chips or when he steals half of his sandwich when they're lazing around at his place? It doesn't have to mean anything.

But less than fifteen minutes ago he'd slapped Moe's hand away when he reached for chin chin out of Jamie's plate. And, like, Moe's his mate, Jamie would go to war for Moe, but still. Still.

"Shit," Jamie says softly to himself, the puzzle pieces inside his brain slipping into place. Again, a little louder. "Shit."

"What's wrong with you?" Isaac nudges his shoulder, quietly, thank God. Jamie can't bear to invite his entire team into his sudden romantic realization.

"Nothin', nothin'," he thinks about afternoons spent with (Y/N) in comfortable silence when everything else in the world was wrong; his mind too mean, the fans too opinionated, his efforts on the pitch not good enough. Fuck, Jamie has been a proper dumbass, hasn't he? "Just- I gotta go. There's somethin' I need to do."

He says his quick goodbyes and pokes his tongue out playfully when it gets a bunch of boos and disappointed whines from the guys. The cold Richmond air hits him full in the face as he leaves Ola's, brows furrowed as he texts.

hey u still up?

Jamie bites his lip as a response comes through seconds later.

yeah? Thought you were out w the boys tonight

His fingers hesitate before pressing down on the screen, fear be damned.

just left

any chance i can come over?

(Y/N)'s texts are quick, casual.

Of course. always

Everything okay?

Against all odds, Jamie smiles. He has a growing suspicion the night might turn out better than he ever hoped.

alls brilliant

ill be there in 20

#jamie tartt x reader #male!reader #ted lasso #its my first m!reader pls be kind #anon ask #leo writes

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sineala · 11 months

Text

Superheroes and Aging

Meta time! I was asked (on Patreon) to write meta about how Tony Stark might deal with feelings about aging and being surrounded by The Youth. I am reposting it here.

I have to say this has also been on my mind a lot. I will say it's a weird thing growing up being into comics and being a fan of the teenage X-Men because obviously they were the most relatable and then being as old as all the adult superheroes and now being older than all the adult superheroes, who have all been basically the same age for decades as the rest of us move on past them. At least they finally aged up the original crop of teenage heroes and have been replacing them with new ones.

So the thing about superheroes in Marvel Comics, as you probably know, is that they pretty much don't age. Initially, this wasn't really a thing Marvel worried about. It was the sixties and they'd made comics cool and profitable again and kids loved them and I'm pretty sure they weren't thinking that sixty years later people (grown adults, even!) would still be reading and loving and expanding on the universe they made. Because I think if that had been the case they'd have, say, fewer villains that really sound like someone thought of them in about thirty seconds at 5 pm on a Friday and then went home. Big Wheel, a guy who has a... big wheel. Swarm, a guy (I mean, he's not really... human) who is actually a group of bees. Nazi bees. Paste-Pot Pete. You know what I mean.

Anyway, at first Marvel heroes aged, because why wouldn't they? Despite what you would guess if you only watched adaptations, it only took, I think, a couple years for Peter Parker to grow up and leave high school. The original X-Men all stopped being teenagers. Time moved on. Then after about ten years Marvel figured out it was going to be a problem if their beloved heroes were too old to be superheroes and they more or less halted the aging process. And that's how we get the Marvel Sliding Timescale. Broadly stated, the Sliding Timescale is essentially "don't worry about it." Everything you are reading right now happens right now, the beginning (the FF getting their powers) happened about ten or fifteen years ago (I think right now it's closer to 15 and we're at four RL years = one comics year), and everything else that has ever happened in 616 -- because Marvel also doesn't believe in line-wide reboots -- is wedged in somewhere in the time between. As real time passes, the sliding timescale slides events closer and closer together because more events have now happened.

So the effect of this is that heroes don't age. I think this is actually most notable with child characters -- like, ask yourself how old Franklin and Valeria Richards are. Or don't. I think Dani Cage has been a toddler for about fifteen years now. So the founding Avengers started off in their early 20s, are now in their mid-30s, and are going to continue being in their mid-30s for the foreseeable future because Marvel doesn't want its heroes being over 40. I think there have been a couple IM issues where Tony has had "significant" birthdays that they carefully avoided putting a number on -- I think one was Bendis, and I know he had a surprise party in the Gillen issue with the adoption reveal. I want to say that maybe there was also a Fraction one? I'm not sure.

The time references have occasionally been lampshaded -- the most recent Iron Man issue as I write this (#6) has Tony asserting that he doesn't remember things by what year they happened in, but rather by what armor he had at the time. He goes on to tell a story of something that happened while he wore the Silver Centurion armor, throwing in an aside that the shoulder pads were fashionable then -- and, out of the armor, he is given his usual stylish perm; the artist has definitely been inspired by Bob Layton's later Iron Man work -- which for me has the disconcerting effect of making it sound like this is somehow taking place in the 80s and also not in the 80s at the same time. Because now they've invented an extra time for shoulder pads and perms to be fashionable and it's approximately 2015. Time is fake. No, actually. It is.

And building on that, I think the effect of that is that mostly they don't seem to have characters like Tony dealing with aging. He doesn't really seem to worry about it, probably because there can't be any narrative payoff if he's simply never allowed to age. (Steve gets it even more weirdly, because a lot of times fandom assumes the serum is just going to halt or slow aging -- as it does in people like Natasha who have serum variants -- but then in universes where significant time actually passes, like House of M, Steve is visibly older, and he definitely is meant to have the serum. Or Bullet Points, where Steve, minus the serum, is actually dealing with aging as he comes out of retirement for one last mission. Which kills him, because it turns out he probably was too old to do this safely. But then in 616 we're expected to believe that Steve can lose the serum and also be mostly combat-ready at age 95. Aaanyway.)

So what if Tony did worry about getting older? Based on how he interacts with the kids these days, I think mostly his worry actually wouldn't involve other people.

For all that intelligence in Marvel seems to be a single invariant and quantifiable statistic that can be accurately measured (which isn't the case in reality but work with me here) and that Tony is a genius but not The Smartest Genius in the Universe, he doesn't ever seem to display any ill will toward anyone ranking higher than him on the list -- say, Reed -- and he is in fact definitely willing to take on the younger geniuses, like Riri, as proteges, and he seems happy to mentor them. He doesn't seem to feel at all threatened by the idea that some of these people are definitely smarter than him -- say, Moon Girl -- and will someday succeed him. Or at least will if Marvel ever lets them age out, which again seems unlikely. Theoretically he also ought to be drawing on a lot more lived experience than Riri that he can use to advise her, but one of the bizarre things that Cantwell's run has left us with is Tony believing that giving the Mandarin's Rings to Riri to study with zero oversight is absolutely the right thing to do; Rhodey congratulates him on his great decision-making. I guess we'll see how that turns out.

(This is in contrast to a character like Doctor Doom, who clearly can't stand the idea that Reed might ever be smarter than him.)

Given that Tony is a character who often has execrable self-esteem, it actually seems a little odd that it doesn't bother him that he isn't the smartest, but it really doesn't seem to. He seems fine with that. He's enough of a genius to do what he needs to do, I guess, and that's good enough for him. Even in Cantwell's run, which was, uh, not a run I would call particularly in-character for Tony in many ways, the thing he decides to do with the Power Cosmic is make everyone in New York as smart as he is. I think this was a fairly poor storyline for a large number of reasons, but I think it does actually show that he has good intentions, in a sense -- he wants everyone else to benefit from the intelligence he has, the same way they can benefit from his philanthropy. He wants to give people the advantages he has. So he seems like someone who wouldn't resent the up-and-coming heroes and geniuses; he seems like he'd be honestly happy that there would be more people out there on his level.

I think, really, as long as he knows he's good to go, he knows he's good enough to do the things he wants to do -- even if sometimes he just hates himself as a human being -- and he probably looks around at all the kids and knows they have to train them up, because even if they're going to be good they're not as good as he currently is, just because they don't have the benefits of years of experience. I mean, maybe they could have some kind of superhero Registration or something. The joke he made to Steve at the end of Empyre wasn't entirely wrong.

(I feel like I should probably also read Young Avengers, for more on how the Avengers deal with The Youth, but I haven't gotten around to that yet.)

Since Tony often blames himself for, well, everything he can possibly blame himself for, including the deaths of people he feels he should have been able to save, I feel like his worries about aging would probably involve his ability to continually successfully be a superhero. We haven't really seen much of this worry since his Extremis/Bleeding Edge days but there was definitely a period of time where his main concern seemed to be the ability to compete with the people he's fighting -- and this seems like it might be where he's heading again in his confrontation with Feilong, who, I should point out, does actually attempt to make fun of him for being old. Tony doesn't seem to take it personally, but he does seem very upset that he's not on Feilong's level, technologically. So I think the thing that would bother Tony wouldn't be the idea that he couldn't keep up with the heroes, but rather that he couldn't keep up with the villains.

So, yeah, that's my take.

#posts i actually wrote

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youvebeenlivingfictional · 2 years

Text

Youvebeenlivingfictional Kinktober 2022

I’m participating in Kinktober 2022 this year using this list by the phenomenal @absurdthirst . If you'd like to be tagged, please leave a comment on this post or send in an ask.

Day One - Diego Jimenez x Reader.

Warnings: Exhibitionism, gun play; grinding; one light slap

Day Two - Nathan Bateman x Reader

Warnings: Voyeurism; toy use (dildo); overstimulation; oral sex; cursing

Day Three - Steve Rogers x Reader x Bucky Barnes

Warnings: Cursing, spanking, one (1) pussy slap, handjobs, blowjobs, piv, spitroasting, threesome, unprotected sex, cumplay, Dom!Steve, Switch!Bucky, Sub!Reader

Day Four - Layla El-Faouly x Reader

Warnings: Nipple play, biting, grinding

Day Five -Josh Lyman x Reader

Warnings: Kitchen counter sex, spit as lube, piv, unprotected sex

Day Six - Jack "Whiskey" Daniels x Reader

Warnings: Sex work; lingerie; reverse cowgirl; piv; unprotected sex; accidental fluff and angst; this one also wound up being way longer than I expected it to be

Day Seven - AOS!Jim Kirk x Reader

Warnings: Shower sex; oral sex (male and female receiving); fingering; piv; unprotected sex

Day Eight - Jonathan Levy x Reader

Warnings: Begging; phone sex; the fellating of a lollipop; masturbation; subby Jonathan

Day Nine - Benoit Blanc x Reader

Warnings: Fingering; rimming; oral sex; anal sex; unprotected sex

Day Ten - Duncan Idaho x Reader

Warnings: Fingering; slight sensory deprivation; unprotected sex; size difference; choking

Dany Eleven - AOS!Leonard 'Bones' McCoy x Reader

Warnings: Frottage, smooching, fingering, handjob

Day Twelve - Duke Leto Atreides x Reader

Warnings: Cock warming; riding; desk sex

Day Thirteen - Benny Miller x Reader

Warnings: Masturbation; phone sex; scent kink

Day Fourteen - Orlando Oxford x Reader

Warnings: Glory hole; piv; unprotected sex

Day Fifteen - Santiago Garcia x Reader x Frankie Morales

Warnings: Cuckolding; facesitting; oral sex; dirty talk; piv; unprotected sex; cumplay; implied bi characters

Day Sixteen - Angel Reyes x Reader x Bishop Losa

Warnings: Oral sex; unprotected sex; piv; anal; double penetration; cursing

Day Seventeen - Matt Murdock x Reader

Warnings: Pussy slapping; oral sex; dirty talk; spanking

Day Eighteen - Oberyn Martell x Reader x Ellaria Sand

Warnings: Pegging; piv; unprotected sex

Day Nineteen - Tangerine x Reader

Warnings: Role playing/prep for a honeypot mission; oral sex; fingering; spit as lube; unprotected sex

Day Twenty - Benedict Bridgerton x Reader

Warnings: Flouting of Regency Mores; Handjobs; gags; piv; unprotected sex

Day Twenty One - Gurney Halleck x Reader

This can kinda be read as a companion piece to The Warmaster's Wife

Warnings: Masturbation; oral sex; fingering; breeding

Day Twenty Two - James Bond x Reader

Warnings: Sex pollen; unprotected sex; piv; implied multiple orgasms; rough sex

Day Twenty Three - Benny Borracho Magalon x Reader

Warnings: Lap dance; oral sex; fingering; rough sex; piv; one degrading term

Day Twenty Four - Javi G x Reader

Warnings: Edgeplay; praise kink; masturbation; piv; unprotected sex

Day Twenty Five - Mirror!Christopher Pike x Reader

Warnings: Collaring; mirror sex; choking; fingering; piv; unprotected sex

Day Twenty Six - Sherlock Holmes x Reader

Warnings: Flouting of Victorian mores; riding; piv unprotected sex

Day Twenty Seven - Abel Morales x Reader

Warnings: Oral sex; piv; infidelity

Day Twenty Eight - Christine Chapel x Reader

Warnings: Oral sex; fingering; body swap; blindfolds; edging

Day Twenty Nine - Stewy Hosseini x Reader x Kendall Roy

Warnings: Masturbation; voyeurism; oral sex; mentions of cocaine, but not use or abuse; implied Eiffel Tower

Day Thirty - Harvey Specter x Reader

Warnings: Public sex; oral sex; piv; unprotected sex

Day Thirty One - Ray Merrimen x Reader

Warnings: Prey play, dub-con, dom/sub dynamics, derogatory language, pussy slapping, restraints, gagging, rough sex, piv, unprotected sex, aftercare, praise kink

#Youvebeenlivingfictional Kinktober 2022 #Kinktober 2022

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madelinetess · 3 months

Text

Wouldn't it be nice?

“There are only ten minutes remaining till the end of this match and Richmond players seem to be in quite the pickle.”

“You are right Arlo, it does appear to be a dangerous situation for the greyhounds. As of now the score is 1:1 but Chelsea’s in possession and it looks like they may score the winning goal after all.”

“A beautiful pass from number 11, getting through Richmond’s defence, the only thing between the Chelsea Striker and leaving the match victorious is Richmond’s goalie, Zoreaux, who seems to be having a tough day today.”

“The greyhounds are relying quite heavily on their defence players today… What’s this? A beautiful kick by the Chelsea attacker! It’s soaring through the air and… By God, Arlo, did you see that?”

“If you are referring to the brilliant dive by Richmond’s number 13, then yes, I most definitely saw it. We simply have to look at it again, the way he got in there just in time to kick the ball right back into the stands, simply marvellous.”

A slow motion replay of Jan’s desperate save displayed on the screen accompanied by the cheers of the fans in the stands and the live commentary by both Chris Powell and Arlo White.

“The Dutchman did it again. He has definitely been the backbone of today's defence, foiling most of the scoring attempts. But back to the game, it is now time for Nelson Road residents to either try and keep the ball for the remaining four minutes, or to shock us with some clever closing play.”

“You never know what to expect from them, and they’ve been continually pulling all kinds of tricks from their sleeves. Chris, what do you think is going to happen?”

“It remains to be seen, Arlo, we’ll just have to wait.”

“Bumbercatch passes to Montlaur, Montlaur goes in to score, but no! It was a feint and it’s Jamie Tartt now with the ball. Tartt passes to Rojas who gets through Chelsea’s defence and gets the ball straight to number 12 and it’s a goal! A beautiful play by the Greyhounds mere seconds before the final whistle! Richmond winds up victorious with two goals from Tartt and Hughes respectively.”

“A beautiful display of teamwork indeed. It’s games like this one that truly highlight the unity of the Nelson Road Team, the famous ‘Richmond Way’ a term coined by Trent Crimm in his best selling book…”

The commentary was now fading away as the team exited the pitch, still euphoric after the win. Jan walked feeling exhausted but hyped up and was now heading to the locker room to celebrate along with the entirety of the team. The coaches were already there, waiting for them.

Everyone got seated and the room fell into silence, awaiting Roy’s words.

“Allright, I’ll make it quick. Good job Jamie, Colin,” He nodded at each respective player but then turned towards Jan “Jan Maas. You are the main reason we didn’t fuckin’ lose today!” Excitement in their manager’s voice crystal clear.

Dani was the first one to cheer, but soon everyone joined in and the whole locker room was once again filled with excited footballers. Shoulder pats and bear hugs were exchanged once again before Roy had to shout to get them to settle down and listen to the announcements.

“Oi! You have fifteen minutes to celebrate here, and after that I expect to see you all on the bus, ready to head to the hotel.”

With that Roy left to support Rebecca handling the interviews, and both Beard and Nate followed him out of the room, probably to settle some other matters.

The team changed quickly and it wasn’t even twenty minutes later that Jan sat next to Richard on the way to the hotel. The Dutchman pulled out a well loved book that was given to him for his birthday by the man sitting right next to him out of his bag. Richard himself could never read while in a moving vehicle, so as usual he opted for listening to music and looking out the window, completely zoned out.

The ride itself was short, and soon enough they all stood in the hotel lobby waiting to get their keys.

“Listen up people!” Coach Beard could be heard over the general ruckus “You get settled and then at 8PM sharp we meet in conference room 3 for our movie night! Jan Maas, today you get the honours of drawing the movie from our box of suggestions.”

A collective choir of whoops and whistles filled the foyer.

The movie night tradition became a thing when Ted was still their manager and it was one of the many things that stuck around even after he didn’t. Of course pillow fights also kept on happening, but the clean-up after a movie night is undoubtedly easier, and watching a silly movie is definitely a great way of winding down after a difficult match.

The box of suggestions though, was Phoebe’s idea that Roy decided to implement. At the beginning of the season each player got to write down one movie name on a post-it and put it in a purple glittery shoebox. Then, every movie night someone from the team would draw a piece of paper from said box and whatever it said, that was the movie they were going to watch.

The suggestions were obviously restricted, to the disappointment of both Moe and Richard. Richard’s, because almost everyone voted no, on classic French cinema, and Bumbercatch’s for reasons unspecified. The only other rule was no one was supposed to know who suggested what.

So obviously Jan and Richard turned into a game to see if they could guess who wrote down which movie. So far they were pretty sure that Dani suggested Night at the Museum and Sam was definitely the one who pitched Ratatouille, as for the other ones they were based purely on speculation. Both of them were pretty positive that Thierry picked How to lose a guy in 10 days. Richard kept disagreeing with him about who suggested Baby Driver, it was a tie between Jamie and Isaac, but for some reason the same disagreement also occurred while debating who picked Ocean’s Eleven.

Some other movies they watched included classics such as Jojo Rabbit, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Legally Blonde, The Greatest Showman, and Knives Out. The jury was still out on all of these.

They agreed not to disclose what movie they themselves suggested, to keep the game more interesting.

Jan however knew exactly what Richard picked. He remembers the first practice of the season, he remembers the weather outside, and the exact button up shirt that Richard wore that day.

Why does he remember that? Well, because he spent the entire after-practice meeting staring at the four undone upper buttons, and not thinking about what movie he should put down as his suggestion. That in turn meant he caught a glimpse of Richard’s post-it and the two titles written in neat handwriting. Duplex and 50 First Dates sat right there being deeply analysed by the Frenchman struggling to pick one. That’s when Jan decided, whichever one his friend doesn’t pick, he was going to write down.

The jangle of the room keys brought the Dutchman back to Earth. Richard has already gone and picked them up from coach Beard and was now motioning for Jan to follow him to their accommodations.

Most of the team roomed on the same floor, but the coaches made sure to get themselves settled the furthest away from the rest of the team. The rooms were nice enough, with a small balcony, two beds, wardrobe, a table with some chairs and an adjacent bathroom. Enough for a one night stay.

Richard immediately threw his things onto the bed by the window and sat down on it. After dozens of times sharing a room at away games Jan already knew that the Frenchman loved being woken up by the sun.

The Dutchman took the other bed and unpacked some of their bathroom things. There was no use taking two tubes of toothpaste, so they both agreed beforehand who was going to take one, same with soap and shampoo. Neither of them trusted the ones provided by the hotels.

After they were done unpacking they headed down to the dining room to grab some dinner before coming back up to their room to get changed into some sweatpants and comfy t-shirts and whatnot. Then the only thing left was to locate conference room number 3.

On the stairway they were joined by Colin, Isaac, Moe and a couple of the reserves. They already went up a flight before Reynolds stopped them to ask a question.

“Hold up, does anyone know where we are supposed to go?”

“Conference room 3, duh” Colin answered.

“Yeah, but do any of you actually know where that is?”

Everyone stopped in the middle of the stairway and shook their heads.

“Then where the hell are we going?” Goodman piped up.

“O'Brien, didn't you say that your roommate stayed back to ask the receptionist about it?”

“Yeah, he did.” Tom turned around as if to locate said roommate and didn’t seem to find him. Then he turned around again, hoping for a different result. That clearly didn’t seem to help. “I forgot Bhargava!” he yelled out and dashed down the stairs back to the rooms.

“Do you guys think he just locked him inside their room?” Colin asked, looking after the goalkeeper.

“Maybe he just forgot to tell him we were going already..?” Isaac supplied.

“Nah, he totally locked him in,” Richard laughed heartily and looked at Jan smiling which he reciprocated.

“Isn’t there a floorplan somewhere maybe?” Jan asked no one in particular. The Dutchman looked around trying to find something that would tell them where to go. While they were still standing around on the stairs they all heard O’Brien shouting.

“Lads! We got to go downstairs, not up!” A chorus of groans lasted a good ten seconds it took them to get downstairs and back to the lobby.

Once they finally reached the conference room Roy looked at them, then at his watch, and then back at them.

“What took you so long, you got fuckin’ lost, or something?”

“Well, what matters is that we are all here now.” Reynolds said after a beat of silence.

“That is the bare minimum, we said at 8, it’s 8:20”

“Actually, it’s only 8:17 so it’s closer to…” Goodman started but one look from their former captain turned manager shut him up.

"We need to learn how to appreciate the little things, like finding our way, or Richard…" Jan said, throwing an arm around his friend, who was standing right next to him.

The Frenchman was not amused, and rolled his eyes pointedly exaggerating the movement.

"Laugh all you want, I'm not the one that had to ask the hotel desk to get another duvet, because I didn't fit under the one that comes with the room."

“Fuckin’ hell… Enough of that, get inside, sit down and get ready to watch the movie.” Roy stopped them before they could drag the conversation out even longer. “Jan, come with me to pick the movie.”

Inside the conference room a projector was set up, along with a few rows of nice cushioned chairs to sit on. Roy stood in front of the chairs waiting for the footballers to settle down on their seats.

“Today's match was hard,”Roy began his speech. “but we pulled through. And we fuckin’ won!” Here Roy paused, waiting for the cheers to die down. “And we owe it not only to the ones scoring the goals, but to our defence as well, especially to Jan Maas over here, so Nate,” Here Roy turned to the shorter man, “Bring in the Box!”

Nate approached with the glittery shoebox and dramatically opened the lid before turning to Jan waiting for the Dutchman to pick out a post-it note with the title of today’s movie.

Jan covered his eyes and reached into the box pulling out a piece of paper folded twice, handing it to Roy and walking off to sit down on an empty chair next to Richard that the shorter man saved for him.

“And the movie of the evening is… 50 First Dates!”

Some people whooped, some looked around confused. Richard turned to look at Jan grinning. Jan returned the gesture for the second time today and turned to the screen waiting for the movie to start. He has never seen it before, but since Richard enjoyed it, then it must be nice.

The snack bowls were passed around, the light turned off, and the movie put on. Jan held onto the popcorn he was handed. For the next hour and a half every now and then the Frenchman would nudge him to get the bowl within his reach.

From time to time someone would snicker at some joke, Jamie definitely winced at the scene where Lucy beat Henry up, Thierry pointed out the fact that the dolphins were named Mary Kate and Ashley and Dani shot up during the diary burning scene to exclaim that it’s almost like that time when they were getting rid of the ghosts from the treatment room.

They all bawled their eyes out at the break up scene, and tissues had to be passed around during the final one. Jan ended up liking the movie and judging by the fact that by the end most of the players were trying to hold back tears, so did they.

Once the light came back on the coaches gave them ten minutes to tidy up, and get back to their rooms. Isaac and Sam stayed the longest to make sure everything was back to how it was beforehand, which meant Colin was stuck outside the doors waiting for his room key that his best friend held on to, Jan and Richard decided to keep him company.

“How’d you like the movie?” the Welshman asked, noticing how the two of them decided to wait around with him.

“I liked it” Jan simply answered “And you, Richard, you’ve seen it before, right?”

“Yeah, but I still find it enjoyable.”

“Yeah? Is it because Henry reminds you of… well, you?” Colin laughed

“Why? Because Dickie here is a shameless flirt, or actually a softie that cares a lot about penguins?” Colin joked as Isaac joined their group while Sam was locking up the conference room.

“I’ll have you know, penguins are actually great animals.”

“Yeah, and they are also the best secret agents in the world” the Nigerian finally joined their tiny circle, and they were able to start moving towards their rooms.

They all stopped in front of Sam and Dani’s room to talk a bit more before retiring for the night. Jan couldn’t help but notice how short Richard looked standing next to them all, well, maybe not next to Colin, but the rest of them towered over the Frenchman a little.

After about ten minutes of idle lounging around Colin yawned loudly prompting their discussion to halt.

“Need your beauty sleep?” Isaac asked.

“Better not, because he would need a lot of it.” Richard quipped.

“And remember, we have to be up early tomorrow.” Jan replied without missing a beat.

Colin flipped them both off as they bid the group farewell and took off in the direction of their room.

Back in their room they got ready to sleep taking turns in the bathroom. Richard went in first so when Jan exited after his own shower he was surprised to see his friend still up clearly waiting for him. As soon as the Frenchman noticed Jan was done in the bathroom he motioned for him to join him on the bed, so Jan did.

“So, who do you think picked the movie? I’m pretty sure both Dixon and Goodman recognised it but I’m not sure any of them would have picked it as their one choice.”

“How about Tommy Winchester?” Jan suggested trying to seem oblivious.

“Nah, that’s also not it…Maybe Reynolds?” the shorter man continued to speculate.

“How do I know it wasn’t you?” It might have been a bit of a risky move there, but it wasn’t unsound to assume that. “After all you did know the movie and I remember you mentioning something about liking Drew Barrymore romantic comedies…”

“It does make sense, but let me tell you a secret. I wanted to put that one down, but ended up picking a different movie.” Richard winked at him and it took all the self control Jan had to not reveal to him that he knows. “Also, you remembered that comment about Drew Barrymore? I didn’t even remember it until you mentioned it.”

“We are friends, I remember things about you. Things like your favourite actress… Maybe not the French cinema ones, because most of them I’ve never heard of, but you know… other ones…”

“Give French cinematography a try, you may end up liking it. We could put a film on during our next charcuterie night?”

“How did you end up liking it? I didn’t think goat farms had access to a lot of fancy French cinemas.”

“Well, my maman had a big city soul and I got it from her. She never did get out of the farm, but I did and have been living with splendour for the two of us ever since. Never looked back…”

“You never talked about her before… She sounds like a lovely woman.”

“She was… She was the only one who would get my father to dance with her. He was the most stern man you’ve ever met, but when she put on an old record and asked him to dance he would, just like that… Bought them an Adele record for their 20th wedding anniversary with the money I earned in my first job because that was the only new release at the local store. Père and I listen to it every time I visit him back home.”

They were now both lying down, propped up on the big pillow and looking at the ceiling, Richard leaning on him.

“What is your family like? I don’t think I ever heard you talking about them either…”

“Well, I have a brother and a sister, both older than me, and my parents own a small corner shop…”

Jan woke up in the middle of the night disoriented. He looked around and noticed someone lying on top of him.

Richard’s rhythmic breaths and the rise and fall of his chest calmly brought Jan back to Earth and stopped him from panicking lest he wake up the smaller man. They must have fallen asleep whilst talking.

The Dutchman looked back at his friend and smiled softly at how the other man curled up into him. He made a move to reach for the blanket at the foot of the bed without stirring the Frenchman but was unsuccessful in his attempt as the other man stirred awake.

“Morning… Well, not morning, but there isn’t really a greeting for the middle of the night…”

“Hello to you too… Can we go back to sleep, or are you gonna move some more?”

“I… Well, uh… Sure, let’s, let’s get back to sleeping.” Before lying back down Jan draped the blanket over the both of them and spared one last look at his best friend. He waited before Richard’s breathing slowed down again before speaking.

“I was the one who put down that movie… Because I saw you struggling to pick one, and I decided to pick the one you wrote off.” He was now absentmindedly tracing patterns on Richard’s right shoulder and arm while spilling some stuff he’d be too scared to admit in the daylight. “I couldn’t stop looking at you that day… And many days before and after that. It’s been a thing for quite some time. And now I’m thinking that I’d like to buy a gramophone so that we could get a vinyl of some Adele album and dance to it, and maybe visit your dad on the farm… You could show me the goats. I've never touched a goat before… And maybe we could grow older together, but not as friends… As something…”

“Just so you know, I’m not asleep yet…”Richard whispered softly as Jan's face dropped. “And I think I would like that too, but maybe we could talk about it more in the morning?” Jan’s face went from horrified to touched to happy as he hugged the man lying next to him.

He pressed a soft kiss to the top of Richard’s head and burrowed his face in his hair. Richard in turn kissed his neck before turning to find a comfortable position and go back to sleep.

“Goodnight Richard”

“Goodnight Jan”

#janchard #richard montlaur #jan maas #it was supposed to be a short fic #long post #ted lasso #richmond movie night tradition #It was mentioned once that Richard likes romantic comedies with Drew Barrymore and here we are now #“I FORGOT BHARGAVA” is now immortalized in a fic #richmond boys #this got away from me...#spoilers for 50 first dates ig #Writing football commentary as both not a fan of the sport and not a native english speaker was... fun? Yeah it was fun.#I hope I did okay #I'll add the ao3 link in a reblog as soon as I post the fic on there

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theguardiansseries · 25 days

Text

From the Beginning - Chapter 4: Danny Is Brave Despite His Friends’ Best Efforts (He Also Discovers The Benefits Of Soup)

A/N: When you have your outline squished together so what should have been separated into two chapters is instead one big chapter, but that just makes it read better anyways. Enjoy the "Mystery Meat" episode!

Reminder that updates are (hopefully) every Wednesday and Saturday and that I survive off of comments and kudos!

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Rating: Teen Audiences

Summary:

Dani Fenton (who is sometimes starting to go by Danny Fenton) is a fifteen-year-old almost sophmore who was just going about her normal life when she figured out she sort of liked being seen as a boy. Oh, then he (he had definitely been a he at the time) got shocked by a machine his parents built to view into another world that they believed contained a world of ‘ecotplasmic entities.’

Danny really isn’t sure how to tell them that they were right and that he was in the machine when it turned on and that maybe he isn’t so human anymore. (He might also not be a girl anymore, but that one was a little more difficult to explain than the fact that he ((she?)) might be half-ghost.

AO3 Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/54944266/chapters/139959616

Chapters: <<First>> <Prev || Next>

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Chapter Four: Danny Is Brave Despite His Friends’ Best Efforts (He Also Discovers The Benefits Of Soup)

It was more of an effort to not laugh than it should have been, but Danny figured he was allowed to laugh at his friends’ misery when he was suffering from the same thing.

Sam didn’t seem to think so, glaring up at him and muttering a whisper-soft, “I know where you live.” The words were nearly drowned out over the frenzy that was the cafeteria room, but it still managed to make Danny give in and laugh fully.

“Yeah, you do, but could you even make it up the stairs to kill me? I’m pretty sure you’d collapse before even making it through the front door.” The sad part was, it didn’t seem like much of an exaggeration when all three of them were exhausted, sleep deprived, and trying to figure out how the hell they had been given so much homework when it was only Friday of their first week. “C’mon, guys, at least we have the weekend to look forward to!”

“Yeah, the weekend we’ll be using to do fifty pounds of homework,” Tucker muttered, everything about him dripping with bitterness. “Do you think the teachers hate us? Is that what this is? Or are they trying to weed out the weak?”

“Probably want us all to commit suicide so they don’t have to deal with us,” Sam grumbled, Danny fighting to not laugh again even as Tucker did. “School was not this exhausting last year.”

Danny shrugged, nibbling on a fry, “Dunno. Maybe they’re trying to figure out the smart ones from the dumb ones early.” A glance down at his tray showed that while he had eaten a lot of his lunch already, there was still a good amount left. He was still starving and hungry as hell a lot, but he at least wasn’t scarfing everything down that he could get his hands on like he had in the beginning of the week. “Which means me and Tuck are doomed.”

“Hey,” Tucker frowned. “I’m smart!” Mm… was he, though? Danny figured the thought must have shown up on his face since Tucker looked even more offended. “Hey!”

“I mean, don’t get me wrong, Tuck, you’re a genius when it comes to coding and hacking and tech and stuff, but… You kind of suck at everything else.”

There was a long silence, Danny waiting for a response before Tucker looked away and sullenly started sipping on his chocolate milk. It was way more hilarious than it should have been, especially when he saw Sam trying to fight back her own laughs. It was possible all the homework might have caused them to suffer from a little bit of hysteria.

“Okay, okay,” Sam said as soon as she was able, sitting back up. “Whose house is up first for homework duty-”

“Not it!” Danny and Tucker both shouted immediately, which, excellent. That meant a study session at Sam’s who was rich and, therefore, had the best study snacks. Sam didn’t even look surprised, anymore!

“How generous of you boys, truly,” Sam drawled, Danny quickly taking a bite of whatever was closest to hide the stupid grin he could feel forming. It wasn’t his fault being counted as ‘one of the boys’ was starting to become a pretty good feeling. “Speaking of you boys, Danny! Did you finally learn to breathe between bites?”

“Ha ha,” Danny said with as dry a tone as he could muster, not keeping it up long before he was smiling at his friends’ looks. “I dunno, just… I’m still really hungry, but it doesn’t feel like I’m Godzilla waking up from a thousand year long nap, you know?”

Tucker snorted with laughter while Sam shook her head, smiling anyways, “At least there’s that. How’d your check up with the doctors go on Wednesday?”

“Yeah, how’d your escape from the second half of classes go,” Tucker pretended to frown, Danny rolling his eyes and flicking a fry at him. At least, Danny was pretty sure it was a fry.

“It went fine.” Which was something Danny had already told the two, but, God, it would take someone a lot stronger than Danny to get them to stop worrying over him. “I’m still, you know, not the best, but they’re happy that I seem to be stable and don’t have anything that’s, like, really wrong, you know?”

Not to say he was perfectly alright. He was still dropping almost everything he picked up or tried to hold, but he wasn’t shaking or losing his balance as much anymore. His breathing still wasn’t the best, either, and his heart rate was still kind of trashed, but he at least didn’t struggle for air after walking from his house to the end of the block!

“The only thing that sucked was that Jazz spent an hour grilling the doctors about the best way to follow the aftercare instructions,” Danny continued, trying not to think back to the pure embarrassment at Jazz’s motherly concern and craziness. “Not sure if she’s just that worried, or if she was trying to make some kind of point because Mom and Dad weren’t there.” Ah… and there were the shared looks.

Tucker was the first to speak, as the more ‘relaxed’ friend, so him speaking first made it seem less like an interrogation, “Your parents didn’t go to the appointment with you? Or were they waiting in the car or lobby or something?”

Sam was next, pushing in deep and trying to drive the point home and get Danny riled up into confessing what they all already knew, “Don’t be ridiculous. Of course Danny’s parents would go with him to a doctor’s appointment when it comes to something like this.”

“You know,” Danny finally managed after a few seconds. “This was a lot more effective before I broke down your team interrogation techniques. Now it’s just sad.” Ah, the annoyed, upset looks of his best friends. Balance was restored. “They were at home working on the Portal- I mean, I told you guys what happened, right? The whole self-sustaining thing?”

As expected, Tucker was quick to leap onto the subject of self-sustaining energy, “Dude, I still can’t believe your parents might be about to crack into a source of self-sustaining energy that’s actually, you know, self-sustaining.”

“Might,” Sam stressed. “If this really is running off of- Of ectoplasm or whatever it is, then we have no idea what that could do to someone if they’re exposed to it. I mean, we once thought radiation was safe, too.”

“Damn,” Danny muttered, looking at Tucker. “I think she won that one because that’s… That’s a really good point.”

“But she always wins!” Before Danny could think of a response at Tucker’s loud, dramatic whining, he felt his back bend and his nails dig into his palms at the sudden race of electricity that burned through him like he had shoved a fork into a socket and- “Danny? Hey, whoa, what’s wrong?”

“I-” Danny cut himself off, shuddering as the feeling began to fade, instead turning into something like a low, pouding sense of worry at the back of his mind. “I just- It felt like I was just shocked, just now, but… not. You know?”

His friends both had looks that made it seem like no, they did not know, and Danny wasn’t sure whether to be annoyed or grateful when the bell warning them of their next class screeched through the air. Shaking his head and standing up, Danny muttered a quick, “Nevermind. Probably just the normal static shock.” Except it hadn’t felt like it.

It was more like an exposed wire had been pressed to his skin and then pulled away only to linger in the air just behind him, ready to zap him all over again the second he made the wrong move or choice. It was like an ever-evolving anxiety attack and he was half-tempted to ask Jazz if any of her psychology books had anything on something similar because jesus.

Already keyed up even while the three were just dumping their trash from lunch, he wasn’t even surprised when some loud banging from the kitchen sent him jumping into the air and almost knocking both himself and Tucker to the ground. “Whoa, dude, you okay?”

“I-” Danny cut himself off, grateful that he had already thrown his trash into the actual trash can rather than flinging it onto Tucker or some random kid behind them. “You guys heard that too, right? The…” Words running out, Danny gestured vaguely towards the kitchen.

“Sounded like someone back there might have knocked a pot or something over,” Sam said, standing close by on Danny’s other side and hovering like she was about to catch him. It would have been sweet if Danny wasn’t ready to crawl out of his skin from anxiety.

“I- I mean. I know the bell just rang, but would- Would you guys come with me to just check? Real quick?” Danny should not be this close to some kind of anxiety attack. He had a weird feeling and now he was just feeding into his terror or something like that. Jazz would have had the words for it, but Danny knew enough to know that he was just scaring himself and he needed to calm down. Still. What if it was something and not just a bad feeling?

“Yeah. Yeah, sure. We can check it out real quick.” Sam headed for the kitchen doors with a sense of confidence and purpose that meant no one would stop her, Tucker still sort of holding him up as he followed after her and tugged Danny along. (She wasn’t really feeling much like ‘Danny’ anymore.)

“Well, that’s a fun thing to learn,” Dani muttered under her breath, not surprised when Tucker noticed and gave her a questioning look, because Tucker only ever seemed to be observant when she was freaking out. “Not really feeling much like a guy when I’m this… anxious?”

“There’s probably some insanely long lecture on feminism that Sam has memorized to explain it if you want to ask,” Tucker teased, Dani feeling a little better.

She then felt a million times worse when they all got to the kitchen door and pushed it open to see that the lights were flickering and dimming before shutting off entirely. Dani gulped and she felt Tucker go still, whispering a horrified, “We’re in a horror movie.”

“We are not in a horror movie,” Sam snapped, which was a clear enough indicator that she was just as on edge as them. “The lights probably started acting up and caused one of the cooks to drop something.”

“Are lunch ladies really cooks?” Tucker asked, injecting just enough stupid humor into the situation that Dani didn’t feel like she was going to faint in terror as they crept forward into the kitchen. The door swinging shut behind them made her feel like some dramatic death toll should be going off in the background. “Like, genuinely-”

“Yes, they are,” Sam said firmly. “And also because one of the cooks here identifies as a man, and it’d be rude to refer to him as a ‘lunch lady.’” Huh. Dani wouldn’t have really thought about that even a couple months ago, but that was a good point.

“Maybe he likes being referred to as a lunch lady. Maybe he finds it funny.” Ah, Tucker. He was doing his best, but Dani could hear the way his voice was shaking. Not that she was much better, gripping onto Tucker’s arm hard enough that it was probably going numb.

Before the ‘fight’ could continue, there was another clanging sound, like something heavy and metal hitting the floor. It had all three of them poorly stifling their screams as they jumped into each other hard enough to nearly send them to the ground. Dani wasn’t sure how they managed to catch their balance, but all three of them stayed standing.

Dani hadn’t even looked up from making sure her feet weren’t about to trip over each other again when she felt static rolling across her skin, nowhere near as strong as it had been earlier, but enough to make her snap her head up to see that there was some light in the kitchen.

And it was coming from a ghost.

Dani couldn’t tear her gaze away even as she wanted to look at her friends’ faces to see if they were seeing the same thing. Judging by the way Tucker was now gripping her arm tightly enough to bruise, she had to assume they were.

“Oh dear, oh dear… No, no, this is all wrong.” The actual real life ghost in front of them was speaking and mumbling to herself like some fretful old lady who had forgotten something. It was definitely a ghost, though, because Dani could see through her to the wall of pots and pans behind her. She could also see the way she was floating seven inches off the ground. (Seven? Six? It was enough to be noticeable!)

“Oh, hello, dearies.” Ah. The ghost had seen them. The ghost was now talking to them. “Could you tell me who changed the menu?”

Dani opened her mouth to maybe pray to some god she wasn’t sure she actually believed in when Tucker beat her to it. “Do you mean all the salads and junk that Sam added?”

That was enough to get Dani to turn her head to look at him, shocked that one of her best friends was that stupid. He was even pointing at Sam! Who looked just as incredulous! Yeah, okay, there was no accounting for what someone said when they were going through shock and extreme amounts of fear, but still!

“Oh. You changed the menu?” The ghost who looked like a lunch lady straight out of the fifties with a pink uniform and hair net and gloves and everything was looking at Sam now and Dani was really hoping that this was some weird dream she would wake up from after falling asleep at lunch. Or maybe they were mass hallucinating. That was a thing, right? “You changed the menu.” Oh. That wasn’t a question that time.

Before Dani could say anything, she saw some of the pots behind the ghost beginning to float up into the air, wrapped in the same glowing light that came from the ghost — who was looking a lot angrier than she had a second- Holy fucking shit.

Staring with wide eyes at the huge cast iron pot that had slammed into the wall hard enough to dent it after just barely missing Sam’s head, Dani was pretty sure her brain went offline for a couple of seconds in shock. She then decided she could go into shock when she was dead and shoved Tucker hard enough that she might as well have body-checked him before doing the same to Sam and screaming, “Run!”

It was then Danny who turned back and kept himself between the ghost and his friends.

Let me be brave, Danny thought to himself fiercely, because Danny wasn’t the shy, meek little girl who avoided any sign of confrontation and tried her best to be quiet. Danny was someone who was learning to speak up for himself and was bad at it, but was trying. Danny was the one who was starting to let himself take up space and try to figure out just who he was.

So it was Danny who grabbed the fallen pot off the ground as his friends ran and threw it up into the air at another one that had been flying towards them. Through some miracle of luck it actually managed to hit, the two making a loud clanging sound that hurt his ears and had him hurrying out the door after his friends.

He didn’t bother to waste his breath to tell his friends to keep running, only shoving them forward when he saw they had slowed down to make sure he was behind them. He made sure it was a decently powerful shove considering he heard more pots clanging into the walls and door of the kitchen, the cafeteria now empty with no witnesses which meant no one to see what the hell was going on.

It wasn’t until they were a couple of hallways away, all empty since everyone who didn’t have a deadly sense of curiosity was in class, that Tucker was squeaking out a high-pitched, “What the hell?!”

“Inside, inside, inside,” Sam chanted, jerking open a door into an empty classroom before pushing them all inside and then shutting and locking it. Danny watched as her legs gave out and she slid down to the floor, Tucker not doing much better as he propped himself up against a desk. “That- That was… Was that really-?”

“That was a ghost.” Tucker’s face was paler than Danny had ever seen and enough to spur him into grabbing a chair and dragging it over before pushing him into it. “That was actually- Ghosts can’t do shit like that- Ghosts aren’t real like that!”

Still gasping for breath he didn’t have, and knowing his heart was going way too fast, Danny finally managed a weak, “That wasn’t a ghost.” As soon as his friends looked at him like he was insane, he shook his head. “No, listen, that- That was everything my parents have ever told me about. That was an ectoplasmic entity or whatever it is that they’ve been studying.” Which meant… “Holy shit, they were right.”

“Dani, girl-”

“Boy again. Sorry.”

“Danny, man, I love you, but what the hell does that have to do with what’s going on right now? And the fact that we’re about to die?”

Making a note to beam over Tucker’s casual acceptance of how he was switching between genders like dresses before a party, Danny forced himself to focus and dug out his phone. “It means that we can call my parents and they can come down here and actually do something about it.”

Pulling up his contacts quickly, Danny heard Sam muttering something before her voice pitched up in something between offense, rage, and hurt, “You ratted me out to a ghost?”

“I panicked! I thought-! She looked like my grandma, I didn’t think she’d suddenly start throwing kitchenware at us!” Alright. That was a decent point, actually.

Phone ringing, Danny blew out a breath when it connected and he heard his mom’s voice. “Danielle? Sweetie, what’s wrong? You’re supposed to be in class right now, aren’t you?”

“Mom-” Voice breaking, Danny realized just how tense and terrified he still was, all his energy thrumming under his skin like static before lightning struck. (He really needed to stop focusing on the static and lightning analogies, if only so he could stop remembering how much he had screamed.) “Mom, I need you and Dad to come to the school, right now.”

“Danielle, honey, we’re right in the middle of our work. Something odd is happening with the EMD and we need to figure it out before it can cause any problems. Are you having a bad day? I can call Jazz and she should be able to come and pick you up-”

“You were right!” Danny blurted out, loud enough that Sam and Tucker both jumped and rattled the door and chair they were each leaning against or on. “Everything you ever said about- About ghosts and ectoplasm and all of it, you were right, okay? Everything. You were right and we’re looking at the proof and you need to get down here right now!”

Silent. The other end was silent and Danny felt ready to scream as he pulled his phone away to make sure the call hadn’t dropped. There was nothing but a black screen, Danny clicking the power button to bring up the call. Nothing showed up. He clicked it again, a couple times, and it was like a dawning horror to realize his phone had just died.

“Shit,” Danny muttered, trying a couple more times before giving up and shoving it into his pocket, other hand held out towards Tucker. “Phone. Mine died.”

Tucker nodded and moved to get it, Danny snapping his hand back with a sharp gasp as that same feeling from lunch, that same burning jolt of static, shot through him with enough force to have him stumbling away and looking around the room as if something was about to jump out at him.

He wasn’t wrong.

The ghost from earlier was suddenly in the middle of the room, both his friends jumping to their feet with enough force to send them stumbling back. The look of fear in their eyes had Danny’s skyrocketing, but at the same time it made him feel angry.

“You dare change the menu?! The menu has been the same for fifty years! Fifty years of tradition! Of getting it right! And you would dare change it?!”

Let me be brave, Danny thought once again, watching as one of the desks glowed with that strange energy and light the same as the pots had. Danny saw where it was going to hit as it flung itself through the air on a trajectory right towards Sam.

Before he could even think he was moving, hands outstretched and shoving Sam away and into Tucker, knowing he would catch Sam. He then braced himself to feel a whole lot of pain as the desk flew- Right by him?

Okay. Well. He wasn’t about to question his luck there when the desk was in splinters against the wall and they now had a clear shot to the door, Danny shoving them forward with another command to, “Run! Outside!”

His friends didn’t question it and began running at once, Tucker panting out strained words as they rounded the corner. “Danny, that desk- It went through you!”

“Yeah. I know. Really close miss,” Danny panted out himself, the burn in his lungs starting to remind him really clearly that his doctors had talked about him having problems with breathing at his last check-up. “Talk later.”

“No, man, it went through you!” Okay, they would have time to talk about Tucker’s fear hallucinations later, Danny decided.

“Outside, outside,” Danny said, raising his voice so Sam could hear, who was already making the turn for the front doors. “We need to get out. Lead it to my parents!” If they could get to his house — or more accurately if they could get to ‘Fenton Works,’ his parents would probably have something in the lab that could deal with everything.

“We- We can’t!” Tucker gasped like he was about to stop breathing, Danny slowing just enough to make sure he could keep Tucker ahead of him and catch him if he collapsed as they raced down the stairs and out onto the front lawn of the school. Unlike Danny’s possible likelihood, Tucker did have asthma. “We can’t skip school!”

“Get your priorities straight!” Sam shouted back, enough breath in her lungs to yell at them. It was extremely unfair, in Danny’s opinion. What was more unfair was that the ghost or ectoplasmic entity or demon or whatever it was was right in front of them again, like all their running hadn’t even mattered. It also had grabbed Sam by the wrist and jerked her to a stop harshly enough that Sam let out a short scream.

Danny didn’t even think. He didn’t stop, or scream, or gasp, or anything. He just kept running, fear and anger pounding through him at seeing Sam’s terrified face, before he slammed into the ghostly lunch lady that was looking at them with burning red eyes. He was honestly surprised when he made contact, and apparently so was the ghost since he saw her grip on Sam loosen enough that she was able to free herself.

“Danny!” The warning came a second too late, Danny wincing as it was his arm grabbed that time. He heard Sam scream again, and Tucker too, but it was a little hard to be sure when all of his focus was on the searing pain in his arm as he was lifted off the ground higher, and higher, and higher-! Too fast, this was all going too fast, he couldn’t even think-

“Now, dearie, it’s quite rude to interfere,” the ghost chided him like he was a misbehaving child, Danny swinging almost twenty or thirty feet up from the ground and trying to hold back a scream. The pain in his arm was enough to make him think it was dislocated, all of his weight hanging by the grip around his wrist. “This should fix that, and you should be just fine, even. Just a few broken bones, is all, I think!”

Danny looked up at the ghost who smiled at him like she was being genuine and just putting him in some sort of time-out before he realized he was falling through the air.

For a brief second that had to have been controlled by hysteria Danny decided the feeling of falling through the air felt like when he had jumped from a swing as a kid or when coming down after bouncing too high on a trampoline.

The next second had the panic overwhelm him, a voiceless thought that he didn’t want to feel that much pain again, but it was quickly drowned out by fear that Sam and Tucker were next.

He didn’t give a shit if he got hurt along the way, but he was not going to let some insane research of his parents hurt his best friends. He wouldn’t. He wouldn’t. No matter what it took, he was going to protect them-!

A sudden jerk had him stopping in his descent, Danny braced for the pain. He instead felt a wave of shock at there being none. He then realized there was no pain because instead of hitting the ground, he was floating a few inches above it.

In the seconds before he dropped the last few inches to the ground, Danny looked at Sam and Tucker to see they were stunned, completely still and silent. He also looked at the ghost who looked as scared as he felt.

A part of him wanted to just sit there and just give into the urge to sob in terror, but then he realized what he was looking at. She was scared. That meant there was something that could stop her.

Rolling over and shoving himself up onto his knees, Danny saw the ghost was still up in the air, still too surprised to move yet. Danny, now an expert at pushing his panic attacks away until later, furiously tried to think on what he could do.

A whisper.

A nudge to his back.

A swirl of soft blues and purple that he couldn’t see but somehow knew was there, the faintest, Backpack.

Following the nudge, Danny didn’t stop to think as he ran for Tucker and turned him around before he ripped his backpack open, ignoring Tucker’s sputtering and squirming. Instead he found just what he had been looking for.

He had almost forgotten, but that time at the lab, on the day of the Accident, he had seen Tucker grab something from one of the tables. He had probably been wanting to play around with it and see what it did, but Danny remembered his dad talking about it. It was an old thermos he had converted into a container for ectoplasmic energy.

He had no idea how it worked, absolutely no clue if it would do anything towards the ghost that had almost tried to kill him, but he didn’t let himself hesitate.

Let me be brave, Danny thought as loudly as he could, ripping the cap off the thermos and fumbling to turn it around towards the ghost that was quickly getting over her shock. Let me protect them!

“Soup isn’t on the menu, child.” The ghost was smirking like she was someone who knew they couldn’t be hurt, but Danny forced himself to not believe it. She had been scared, after all.

She had been scared and so, with every scrap of hope he had left inside of him, Danny held up the themors and pressed the bright green button on the side of it.

There was a moment — a second — where nothing happened and Danny felt like his heart was about to throw up. Then he felt the metal in his hands heat up with enough force and speed that it took everything in him to not drop the container, eyes wide as a beam of bright white light or energy or something shot out and hit the ghost directly.

Danny braced himself as he felt the container vibrate in his hands, the ghost screaming as it looked like she was almost being pulled into the thing. He expected her to rip away from it and escape until the last second when both the ghost and the energy coiled back in on itself, Danny capping the thermos without thought.

“Sorry, lady,” Danny said, a laugh of what was definitely hysteria leaving him as he suddenly felt a million pounds heavier, not helped at all when he heard what might have been his parents starting to shout at him. Or maybe it was Sam and Tucker? “But it looks like lunch is over.”

Letting out a breath, Danny tried to figure out just what to do with a container that had a ghost in it like straight out of an old sci-fi movie. He also tried to figure out how he was going to explain this to his parents and maybe even the teachers.

He then realized the black at the edges of his vision hadn’t gone away — had only grown stronger — and that was probably a bad thing.

After that, all he knew was that it was dark and quiet and he was tired.

A nap would be fine, right?

—

If you enjoyed this story then check out my Writing Commissions either here on Tumblr or at my personal Website.

…or, if you prefer, you can just buy me a ko-fi! ☕ …or, if you have a nice allowance, support me on Patreon! 🪶

#danny phantom #ftb chapters #the guardians series #danny phantom rewrite #i'm out of backlog chapters so pray for me as I furiously try to balance this and commissions lmao

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daniraevys · 6 months

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Reading fifteen and dark era, I realized I just love Hirotsu!

The man has a patience of a saint for dealing with Dazai.

He is powerful but not cocky about his power. I just loved his first interaction with Chuuya where he compares himself to Chuuya and tries to give advise.

I would kill to know this man's backstory.

Like, did Hirotsu also have a gang of friends where he was their leader, cuz he was the strongest and had an ability?

What happened to his friends, if it were so? Did they die too? Or are some of them in Mafia like him and we just don't know cuz he doesn't have enough screen time.

Hirotsu also really cares about his subordinates as seen in dark era.

He just inspires such loyalty.

He also knows more secrets then he lets on, and he wouldn't betray those secrets unless he absolutely has to. (Don't tell me, he didn't figure out Tachihara was a spy, he definitely knew. He also knew about Mori offing the previous boss.)

He also has this kind grandpa vibe, whom we can unload all our problems on. He would patiently listen to us, give some advise if he sees fit. Or gives us enough time and safe space to figure out the solution ourselves.

#fifteen #bsd #dani reads fifteen #hirotsu ryuurou #bsd hirotsu

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twistnet · 2 years

Text

kinktober masterlist — 2022

going to pin this for a while, so if you’re looking for the navigation ⇢ go here

“i think they should be absolutely terrified of you...”

welcome all to another year of kinktober! just like with the previous year, random names were drawn from my character list using the wheel of death and were matched with a prompt that fit that chosen character!

⋯ ✧ PROMPTS ; prompts were chosen from this [ post ] by @the-purity-pen ; these are pure smut, meaning 18+ only [ minors do not interact! ] — you can block #twistnet :: kinktober 2022 if you do not wish to see

⋯ ✧ EXPECTATIONS ; all works are 500-1000 words, with little to no plot -- just plain ole smut [ gn!readers, afab!readers + female!readers; will be listed in warnings + tags ]

⋯ ✧ NOTICES ; things to keep in mind

all kinks, pairings + readers were chosen by me; based entirely off what i felt comfortable writing. if anything from the below list makes you uncomfortable, i strongly advise you not to read it

ageless blogs // minors interacting with this post, or any of the linked posts, will be blocked

this post will serve as the masterlist for the event + days will be updated with links upon posting

day one. 69 — pete mitchell x fem!reader

day two. floor sex — stella kidd x afab!reader

day three. glove kink — dmitri ‘enzo’ antonov x fem!reader

day four. missionary — jim street x gn!reader

day five. leather // latex — jill valentine x fem!reader

day six. cockwarming — matt murdock x gn!reader

day seven. costumes — robin buckley x fem!reader

day eight. voice kink — druig x gn!reader

day nine. double penetration — cobb vanth x din djarin x fem!reader

day ten. creampie — bradley ‘rooster’ bradshaw x gn!reader

day eleven. erotic photos — abby anderson x fem!reader

day twelve. exhibitionism // voyuerism — steve harrington x fem!reader + eddie munson

day thirteen. face-sitting // fucking — kim burgess x afab!reader

day fourteen. love bites // markings — dani powell x fem!reader

day fifteen. overstimulation — jake ‘hangman’ seresin x fem!reader

day sixteen. bath // shower sex — vi x fem!reader

day seventeen. pegging — scott lang x afab!reader

day eighteen. lingerie — nancy wheeler x fem!reader

day nineteen. masturbation — alexei smirnoff x afab!reader

day twenty. mirror sex — tom ‘iceman’ kazansky x fem!reader

day twenty-one. praise kink — robert ‘bob’ floyd x fem!reader

day twenty-two. phone sex — javier peña x female!reader

day twenty-three. orgasm denial — leonard ‘wolfman’ wolfe x gn!reader

day twenty-four. outdoor sex — ellie williams x fem!reader

day twenty-five. sex pollen — stephen strange x gn!reader

day twenty-six. wax play — nora fowler x afab!reader

day twenty-seven. sensory deprivation — fennec shand x fem!reader

day twenty-eight. strap-ons — chris alonso x afab!reader

day twenty-nine. body worship — natasha ‘pheonix’ trace x fem!reader

day thirty. temperature play — robbie reyes x gn!reader

day thirty-one. wild card — robert hicks x afab!reader

thank you and please enjoy!

~ love twisty

#twistnet :: masterlists #twistnet :: kinktober 2022

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angstyaches · 11 months

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Payton Gets Spiked

Loosely inspired by reading this post.

If you want more of an introduction to Dani, read this first.

CW: gender stuff, dysphoria, misgendering, brief mention of gendered bathroom dilemma, intense social anxiety, people with varying shitty opinions, spiking with alcohol, references to past binge drinking/alcohol dependency, low self esteem, emeto, crying, panicking, insecure/awkward caretaker.

Word Count: almost 8,000 - oops. If you finish this to the end, you're a real one.

___

“Alright, Dani! I’m just heading out back... to...”

It was fifteen minutes after the coffee shop had closed, night had settled in on the streets outside, and Payton had just finished closing the till. It should have been the most glorious moment of their day, the moment just before their time became their own again and they could bask in the knowledge that they’d done a great day’s work, but that reward was stolen by the swooping sensation in their stomach. Their day wasn’t over just yet.

They’d been in the middle of calling out to Dani, who had been assigned the closing shift alongside them, to tell her that they were heading out back to get changed.

But they stopped themself.

Dani was engrossed with sweeping the floors to the beat of whatever she was listening to on her headphones. Payton decided to leave her to it. She didn’t like being interrupted in the middle of a task, as Payton had quickly learned during her first few weeks here.

And besides, it wasn’t as though Payton was in a hurry to get to the pub, where, if the group chat was anything to go by, the others had already convened. The longer Payton could delay being wedged into a dimly-lit nook surrounded by the smell of alcohol and cigarette smoke from the 80s, the better.

Guilt gnawed at them now, along with the nerves. They shouldn’t be dreading Jake’s birthday; they liked Jake. He deserved to have people coming to his birthday drinks who were excited to be there.

Payton went out back and stood in front of their locker.

They closed their eyes, allowing their mind to wind down after their shift. They stretched their arms out to the side and breathed in, slowly and deeply letting their lungs press out against their ribs. They didn’t feel particularly compressed, but they’d gotten into the habit of doing breathing exercises regularly while binding – in no small part to keep Autumn from worrying about them.

They undid their apron and pulled their polo shirt off over their head. They opened up their locker to grab the cropped purple hoodie they’d brought to change into for the evening. Payton didn’t usually partake in the loungewear look unless they were grocery shopping or travelling or chilling out at home, but Jake had requested that nobody ‘dress up nice’ tonight.

Before picking up the hoodie, Payton glanced down at themself, their sides bare above their waistband. Now that they thought about it, they wished they had worn dungarees instead of cargo pants today. Not for any reason they could put their finger on, which was frustrating. They just had the vague, hollow feeling in the pit of their stomach that they would have felt fifty times better about themself if they’d been wearing dungarees.

They sucked in another deep breath, this time to try to soothe the flare of anxiety.

Their phone screen lit up with a message, and they snatched it up from the shelf in their locker.

A: Finished work yet? X

Payton grinned. The simplest check-ins from Autumn always made their heart flutter.

P: Finished!!! x

A: You've got someone to walk over to the bar with you, right? X

P: Yep, Dani and I are sticking together, don’t worry! <3 x

A: Awesome! Have fun tonight, baby x

Payton kind of wished they’d insisted that Autumn come along tonight, but as far as they knew, nobody else was bringing their partner, so they would have felt a little awkward making themself the exception. Besides, it was good for Payton to get out there and be independent every so often.

And it made Autumn worry less.

P: I will x

A: Message me when you get home x

They glanced over their shoulder as Dani came into the changing room.

She didn’t have her headphones on anymore, but she was humming to herself as she walked. Not in a gleeful kind of way; she hummed intensely, as though her sanity depended on whether or not she hit each individual note. She went straight over to her locker, disappearing from Payton’s line of sight, but Payton didn’t hear her open it.

They put their phone in their pocket and reached into their locker for their hoodie.

“Does that hurt?”

Payton looked over their shoulder again – Dani was looking at them – and then down at their torso. They were still standing there in just their black cargo pants and their binder. It hadn’t really occurred to them that they were topless, but they supposed they were.

“Sorry,” Dani said bluntly, mistaking their embarrassment for offence. “Was that rude?”

“It’s fine,” Payton smiled. “And no, as long as I don’t wear it for too long, it doesn’t hurt.”

Dani blinked. For a second, Payton considered that she might have been working up to asking a follow-up question.

“Okay,” she said instead, turning to open her locker.

The two of them finished getting ready without talking any more. Dani didn’t actually change her clothes; she just swapped her apron for a baggy grey zip-up hoodie that she didn’t zip up. She had already been wearing dark blue jeans and a graphic tee, even though the dress code for staff members was black trousers and block-coloured tops. Dani would never have paraded that outfit in front of Annie or Jake; she must have kept in mind, while getting dressed that morning, that Payton was supervising today.

They weren’t sure how this realisation made them feel. Was it a sign of disrespect that she only challenged the rules on their watch? Or was a good thing that she felt comfortable being herself with them?

Anxiety spiked in Payton’s stomach again. The last thing they wanted was for the newer staff members to dread the sight of them, or watch how they acted around them, but it was also in their nature to be a pushover, and they hated to think they were falling into old habits.

They smiled as they gestured for Dani to step out of the shop before them. Not because they were being a pushover, but so that they could set the alarm, lock up, and then check twice to make sure that the door was actually locked.

It soothed them a little as they stood outside and peered through the glass into the dark shop, sure in the knowledge that nothing was left out of place. Annie was on the opening shift tomorrow, and Payton would rather not get any passive aggressive text messages about crumbs on the floor or lights left on before 9am.

They turned away from the shop. Dani was rocking back and forth with the balls of her feet on the edge of the path as she waited for them.

Payton’s stomach dropped all over again as they observed her in the streetlight. Had the two of them ever even interacted outside of the shop before?

Despite their promise to Autumn, Payton realised they had kind of hoped that Dani would start walking by herself while they locked up, getting enough of a head start so that they wouldn’t have to make conversation. They liked Dani as a person but they didn’t have a friendly banter like Payton did with Paul, and Dani didn’t talk the ear off anyone who would listen like Rachel did.

“You’re opening with Annie tomorrow, right?” Payton asked as they both started walking. They immediately cringed. Defaulting to talking about work had to have been the laziest, most cowardly option.

“Yeah,” Dani said. Her tone might have indicated that she’d rather have all of her wisdom teeth pulled at once. It also might have indicated that opening the shop with Annie was her favourite activity of all time. Payton had no idea which was closer to the truth.

“I... like your t-shirt, by the way.” It’d taken them several glances throughout the day, since the print was faded in parts, but they’d deduced that it was from some horror movie or another.

“It’s vintage.”

“Oh, really?” Payton thought that maybe they’d be treated to the story of how it’d come to be in her possession.

Dani tugged at the headphones that were still sitting around her neck. “I’m putting my headphones back on. For the traffic noise.”

“Oh, okay,” Payton smiled. Since they’d come outside, only about six cars had passed them by, but they weren’t about to point that out. If Dani didn’t want to talk, that was fine. They were still walking together. That was one promise to Autumn locked in.

Now for the second one, which filled them with a little more dread; to have a fun night.

___

The group was still lingering by the bar when Payton and Dani arrived.

The store owner and manager, Annie, stood with one arm across her chest and what looked like a gin and tonic in her hand. She was chatting – probably about one of her husband’s recent business ventures – to Jake, whose cheeks were bright red and whose pint of cider had almost run out.

Rachel was perched on a bar stool, swinging herself gently from side to side as she nursed a Coke-based drink. Paul seemed to be in the middle of telling her a story; judging by the bittersweet smile that played on his lips, and the way Rachel seemed to be completely tuning him out, Payton guessed Paul was talking about Mei, the girl who’d recently broken up with him.

I know way too much about these people, Payton thought with a wry smile to themself.

It was Paul who spotted them first, which brought his story to a halt.

“Hey, boss!” he cheered, shuffling towards Payton and scooping them into a quick but tight hug. They forced a smile despite their surprise, hugging him back. They’d last seen him at the coffee shop yesterday, but he was acting as though it’d been months.

“Welcome! And Dani!” Paul grinned at her as she stood to Payton’s left. “Oh – don’t worry, I’m not going to try to hug you. Learned my lesson on that one. Come on, come over here! What are you guys drinking?”

“I’ve got it, Paul, don’t worry,” Payton assured him. He was drunk enough that he’d probably buy a round for everyone and forget he’d done it, which Payton would rather save him from. They reckoned they should buy Jake’s next drink, seeing as it was his birthday. And Dani seemed tense – either from the walk outside, or from the Paul hug she'd been temporarily threatened by – so they decided to offer to get her first one, too.

“Dani?” Payton tilted their head when Dani didn’t look at them; she still had her headphones on. They waved their hand gently to get her attention.

She dragged her gaze around to look at them, and they gestured bringing a glass to their mouth. Drink?

“Bulmers,” she announced loudly.

Payton nodded and turned, waving to get Jake’s attention this time. He beamed when he saw them, and Payton pointed towards the near-empty glass in his hand.

“Bulmers!” he called over the din, winking his thanks behind his thick-rimmed glasses.

Payton smiled at the bartender and ordered the two pints of Bulmers, plus a Coke for themself. The others started making their way towards a booth. Dani stayed near the bar, not talking to or looking directly at Payton. She was making them think of an anxious stray cat who didn’t trust any of the humans present, but had decided that Payton was the least untrustworthy of them all.

Guilt churned their stomach at that silly assumption. She was clearly just waiting politely for her drink, so Payton wouldn’t be left with three glasses to carry.

She thanked them for her drink as it came out. Payton smiled at her and took their own glass, plus Jake’s pint, over to the table.

Annie and Jake had slid into the booth first, on opposite sides of the table, followed by Paul on Jake’s side and Rachel on Annie’s side. Payton would have preferred – just slightly – to sit beside Paul rather than Rachel, but Dani had already slid into the booth next to Paul by the time they’d decided this.

“Here you go, Jake,” Payton said, handing the Bulmers across the table. They were momentarily relieved to be free of the heavy, sickly smell of it, but as soon as they sat down, they were hit by the equally pungent scent of vodka wafting from Rachel’s glass. First, it made their head swim, and then their stomach lurched. Just the smell of it made them feel like their thought process was being scrambled.

They were seated for a few seconds before realising that all six of them were leaving wet rings on the tabletop.

“Oh! Coasters,” Payton said, relieved for the excuse to get away from the vodka smell for another few seconds. They stood up again.

Rachel squinted up at them, shaking her head. “Genuine question, Payton; do you ever switch out of work mode?”

Payton gave her a smile, wondering how many more they’d have to force before they became relaxed enough for a genuine one. “Yes. Sometimes.”

They started back towards the bar. The smile slid from their face and their stomach took a dive towards the floor as they heard Annie’s voice from behind them.

“Where’s Payton going, Rachel?” she asked.

Except...

She didn’t say Payton’s name, and she didn’t say ‘they’ either.

They pressed a hand to their chest and breathed in slowly through their nose. Misgendering didn’t always get to them like this, but hearing it from someone they spent so much time around felt like a punch to the gut after already enduring so, so many. They tried to force down the throbbing sensation, which was like a scream that was rising to their heart instead of their throat.

They were probably the first trans person Annie had ever met, and they’d always known they’d have to be patient with her. It was either that, or lose their mind, and in this economy, one couldn’t afford to lose their mind at work every other day.

But breaking their chronic people-pleasing habits was hard when this was a constant issue. Correcting people didn’t come naturally to Payton, and on the few occasions where they did correct someone, the weight of the guilt they felt afterwards was almost just as bad.

And guilt wasn’t a compatible companion for self-love.

___

“Oh... getting coasters or something,” Rachel had responded to Annie’s question.

Dani blinked, baffled by what she'd just heard. Had she missed something? Who the hell were they talking about? Payton had just left to get coasters; they had announced that, right before Rachel’s snide remark about how they always seemed to be working. Had Rachel misunderstood Annie’s question, then? Was there some conversation happening that Dani hadn’t –?

Oh.

White noise swelled in Dani’s ears for a couple of seconds. She squeezed one of the beads on her bracelet and focused on keeping her breathing steady.

Say it, she screamed in her head, tugging at her bracelet, They. Where did they go? They went to get coasters. Just freaking say it!

But judging by the murmurs of continued conversations, Dani the moment had passed for her to say anything to fix Annie’s mistake. She found herself equally frustrated with Rachel, who could also have corrected Annie, or at least used Payton’s pronouns in her response.

Through the fog of irritation, Dani became aware of Paul, who was sitting to Dani’s right, handing something to Rachel, who was sitting at the other side of the table. Rachel took whatever it was and whispered harshly in Paul’s direction.

Dani gripped her bracelet harder, resisting the urge to yank her headphones up. She fucking hated the sound of whispers, but she knew if she put her headphones on now, she’d have to deal with eye rolls at best, and verbal lecturing at worst.

A dull clink brought her back into the moment, and she looked up to see Rachel running her finger through a streak of clear liquid that had been spilled on the table in front of her. Rachel put that finger in her mouth – yikes, gross – and grinned as she handed something back to Paul.

A naggin of vodka, Dani realised. In blatant disregard for the no outside food or beverages request that was posted at several points around the pub, Paul had brought shop-bought alcohol into the establishment, and now Rachel was availing of it, too. This night was shaping up to be even more overwhelming than she’d expected.

And they hadn’t even gotten around to singing ‘Happy Birthday’ yet.

___

The bartender looked up from where they had not-so-subtly been checking their phone behind the counter. Payton flashed them a smile of apology and gestured towards the case of paper coasters. They counted out six and wandered back over to the table, sucking in a deep breath before they were once again submerged in the smell of vodka, cider, and the risk of being misgendered.

“Are we going to sing Happy Birthday?” Payton wasn’t sure when Dani had taken off her headphones, but before she’d even taken a sip of her drink, she seemed to have shed her inhibitions. She was speaking now, at least. “Because if we are, you should all know that I am going to have to stick my fingers in my ears.”

Rachel sighed, Paul took a pointed swig of his drink, and Jake half-chuckled as though he was unsure if Dani was joking or not. Payton had the feeling she was not.

Rachel begrudgingly slid a coaster under her drink as Payton passed them around, but not before using it to mop up a long smear of clear liquid from the table. Payton didn’t remember noticing it, but maybe there had been a dribble of water there when they’d sat down.

“And also –” Oh – Dani wasn’t finished apparently. Payton tried to cast her their most sympathetic look, but her eyes were focused on the tabletop, not on any person in particular. “If there’s going to be a billion rounds of for he’s a jolly good fellow afterwards, can you all just please tell me now? I’m not, like, opposed to it or anything, but I would like to know in advance.”

“Oh, god. Can I ask that we… not do any of that?” A nervous grin spread across Jake’s face. “I hate Happy Birthday and all that stuff, honestly. Especially in public places.”

“Ah, come on, it’s a bit of fun,” Rachel muttered, clicking her tongue.

Payton caught Jake’s eye and smiled to reassure him. “How about a toast instead, then, Jake? Just a short one.”

Jake met their gaze and matched their smile. “That, I can endure, P.”

“Oh! Me. Me, I’ll do it. Can I do it, boss?” Paul exclaimed, as though it was Payton’s job to delegate the task. He hoisted his beer into the air, glanced around at the others, and cleared his throat dramatically. “Aheh-hem!”

“Remember, Paul. Short and sweet now, for the love of god,” Jake grinned.

“Happy birthday... to the best senior assistant manager, and, of course, the owner of the best beard in town – Jake. You might be ginger...”

Jake feigned a scoff and put a hand to his hair and beard.

“But we bloody love you, you legend!” Paul waved his glass. “Cheers!”

“Cheers!” everyone agreed.

“Slainte,” Annie tossed in.

After taking a drink from their glass, Payton gasped forcefully, and took another. They were far thirstier than they’d realised, and ending up gulping down half their Coke before making themself stop. They'd had a glass of water at lunchtime today, but barely anything to drink since then. No wonder there was a funny taste in their mouth. Possible dehydration might explain why they felt especially on edge this evening, too.

They grimaced, holding a hand against their sternum and suppressing a burp. That was a lot of carbonation to force down all at once, but they weren’t about to relieve the pressure in front of all of their coworkers.

“Here.” Annie was flapping her fingers in the direction of Jake’s phone, which sat next to his elbow. “Give me your phone, Jake. I’ll get a picture of you, Paul, and the girls.”

Nausea and Coke residue fizzled in the back of Payton’s throat. They parted their lips, hands trembling on either side of their glass as they prepared to correct Annie, but the fear that curdled their stomach also put a clamp on their tongue. What did they even want to her to say? Paul and Payton and the girls? Paul and the others? Just the others?

Anything that didn’t lump them into a group they didn’t belong to would have been nice.

They shivered at the familiar sensation of the moment passing, of another wound officially taking up residence in their body. Autumn would be so disappointed if she could see them right now.

“And Payton.”

Payton’s ears practically pricked up like those of a cartoon dog. They looked across the table to see that Dani was looking vaguely in Annie’s direction, her hands fidgeting with something underneath the table. Her lips were mashed together, her eyebrows tense, and she definitely the one who had just mumbled those words under their breath.

A little bit of the sick feeling in Payton’s stomach dissipated. Annie hadn’t heard, but... just knowing that someone else at the table had clocked the mistake made them feel infinitely less lonely at this table.

Annie stood up, wielding Jake’s phone, and Payton felt a resurgence of queasiness.

“Alright,” Annie declared, “lean in, everyone, lean in. Dani, lean in, please! Thank you. Alright, good…”

In the last few seconds, Payton pulled the clear plastic clip out of their hair, letting their bangs fall loose over one side of their face. They held up a hand in a peace sign to partially obscure their jawline on the other side. They almost retched as they followed Annie’s instructions and leaned in; there was a stronger smell wafting from Rachel’s drink than before, if that was even possible.

Payton could almost imagine they could taste it, it was so thick in the air. God, they really didn’t feel well...

“Say cheese!”

“Cheese!!”

Payton sighed softly in relief when Annie sat back down, satisfied with just the one picture. Payton didn’t hate a lot of things, but they really didn’t like spontaneous photos taken on other peoples’ phones. Jake wasn’t a big social media guy, so maybe that one would never see the light of day anyway.

They took another mouthful of their Coke, hoping to wash away some of the bad taste in their mouth, but it only seemed to make it... worse? They brought the rim of the glass to their nose and sniffed, and then recoiled so fast that they almost fell out of the booth. The glass skidded a few centimetres across the table but, miraculously, didn’t tip over.

Dani jumped in her seat and made the closest thing to eye contact that she’d made with Payton since they’d left work. “What? What? Is it a spider?”

The whole room felt like it was tipping on its side. Payton wasn't just imagining they could taste the alcohol because of the strong smell; they were actually tasting it in their mouth. There was alcohol in their drink, and they had gulped down more than half of it... As they sat there, struggling to wrap their head around how this could have happened, it was inside of them, sloshing in their stomach, swirling into their capillaries, messing with their brain –

Sweat beaded on the back of Payton’s neck.

This wasn’t happening. This couldn’t be happening –

“Payton,” Dani said loudly. “What. Is. Wrong?”

“N-no...” they whimpered, not caring that no didn’t make sense on its own. The only thing they could feel was the feeling of no, and with it came the heady weight of memories that weren’t supposed to be a part of them anymore.

They felt all alone again, like they were being slowly sucked into a pit of darkness.

“Th-they messed up my – m-my drink.” Sharp gasps littered Payton’s speech, and they couldn’t get a good sense of how loudly they were talking. They... couldn’t even feel angry. Not yet. Maybe they never would; messing up drinks was an inevitability for any establishment. Payton had once served full-fat milk to a lady who’d requested skimmed, and by the time they had realised their mistake, she’d already left with her latte. They still had nightmares about her coming back, months later, to complain.

But this was different, right? This was…

Dani wrinkled up her nose and leaned towards Payton’s glass to sniff it.

“I think there – there’s vod... vodka in it... N-no,” Payton said again, the word bursting on their lips like a giant blister. This was how it always used to start. With a ‘no’. No, no, not this, this can’t be real, this isn’t real.

When had it gotten so hot in here?

Dani put her whole hand around Payton’s glass, eyeing the bar. “You want me to go yell at someone?”

“No, no, no, don’t,” Rachel hissed, leaning conspiratorially towards the centre of the table. It seemed that she only wanted Payton, Dani, and Paul to be able to hear her. Her urgency made Payton stiffen. “Will you relax, for Christ’s sake, Dani? Payton, I took a few mouthfuls of your drink and topped it up with Paul’s vodka. I didn’t know you were such a lightweight!”

Payton’s head swam as they looked at Rachel’s face, searching in her green eyes for any indication that she joking. Her face was bronzed and freckled from all the field hockey she played, and they seemed to shift about nauseatingly in front of Payton’s eyes. She... she had to have been joking, right? Nobody would admit to something like that. Besides, they’d been with their drink since they’d bought it; when would she have had the time to –?

Coasters.

Payton had put their drink on the table and then gone back to the bar for the coasters. She must have done it then. Their body stiffened as they remembered the clear liquid spill on the table.

“Come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve ever actually seen you drunk, boss,” Paul half-laughed. The fact that Paul was seemingly in on this too, or was in support of it, at least, only piled onto Payton’s horror, but they’d have to process that later.

“Th-that’s because I...” Payton’s voice was trembling. “I-I’m... I’m sober.”

The grin started to slip from Paul’s face, but Rachel didn’t seem to grasp what Payton meant.

She shrugged. “But it’s not like you’re driving home. And you’re off tomorrow, aren’t you? So, what harm?”

“No, I mean I haven’t… I haven’t h-had any alcohol in…” Payton’s lucidity spiked briefly, long enough for them to experience the stab of grief that hit their gut. “About two and... a half years.”

“Oh, on purpose?” Paul asked weakly.

“Yeah.”

Paul half-chuckled, his energy levels dropping noticeably. Next to him, Dani looked like she was witnessing a train crash in slow motion but couldn’t bring herself to move. Payton couldn’t bear to look at Rachel.

“But it’s not, like… that serious or anything, is it?” Paul pressed.

“Is it Alcoholics Anonymous serious?” Dani questioned, as though that were the qualifying factor. “Like in the movies, with the chairs, and the free coffee, and the…?”

She trailed off, gleaning her answer from Payton’s expression.

“It was Rachel’s idea!” Paul complained. “She did it!”

“What’s going on?” Annie demanded suddenly, only tuning into the conversation now that Paul had started raising his voice.

Rachel half-stood up in the booth and pointed at Paul. “You agreed with me, dickhead!”

“Yeah, well, I didn’t know...”

“Neither did I!”

Their voices faded into an echoing clamour. Payton felt so detached from their body that they wondered if they were having an attack of some kind. They’d had barely a few mouthfuls of vodka and Coke. Why did it feel like their stomach was on fire, forcing its way up their throat? Why did their whole body feel like jelly? Back in the day, it had taken so... so much more.

Had they gone so long without alcohol that they’d developed an allergy? Were they dying? After all of their work, were their last thoughts going to be swamped in dread and despair and drunkenness?

They didn’t know if it was wooziness or generalised terror that made their knees buckle as they tried to get out of the booth, but either way, Payton crashed to the floor, just about keeping a shaky grip on the edge of the table above. They weren’t sure where they were trying to go. They couldn’t even remember deciding to get up.

A hollow, desperate sob racked their ribs. Their stomach was lurching like an injured, frantic rabbit in a trap.

No...

Lucidity came in flashes again. Were they really hyperventilating on the floor, in front of their co-workers and their employer? Were they really making a scene at Jake’s birthday party? Were... were those Dani’s stockinged feet, resting on the floor next to her chunky Doc Marten boots?

Payton shook their head. They had to get away from here. That seemed fairly rational, no matter which they looked at it.

They started clambering upright. The sight of Dani reaching out to give them a hand up made them snap out of their panicked daze just slightly. They straightened their back and mumbled something to reassure her they were fine, they were good, they didn’t need any help –

They heard Rachel ask them something, and they ignored her. They ignored her on purpose – it felt terrible, but they couldn’t bring themself to react any other way – and raced for the bathrooms with tears streaming down their face.

___

Dani was only vaguely ashamed of her first thought after watching Payton bolting towards the back of the pub.

If someone at a small party has a breakdown, is that it? Can the party officially be declared ruined? Is it fair game for me to just... slip out? There were enough hours left in the night that she could probably squeeze in a few hours of Overwatch before going to sleep.

She flinched. Voices were being raised at the table again, which only made her want to leave even faster. No one was yelling at her, but her cells reacted as though they were. Her nerves felt like they were being twisted, twisted, twisted, until –

“You agreed with me!” Rachel hissed at Paul, much to Annie’s apparent dismay. “You said it’d be good for her!”

... Snap.

“It’s ‘they’!” A wave of dizziness hit Dani right in the face. Rachel and Paul and Annie and Jake all stared at her, and Dani’s stomach wobbled. Oh, stars. How loudly had she spoken?

Rachel groaned. “What?”

“They.” Dani felt out of breath as she reached for a bead on her bracelet and squeezed it between her fingertips. “Payton’s pronouns are they/them.”

“Payton’s... not even here, Dani,” Paul said softly.

“It doesn’t matter! You can’t call them anything else.”

“Okay, I’m sorry,” Annie interrupted, though she didn’t sound sorry in the least. It was the kind of ‘sorry’ that really meant I have the right to speak and I shall continue to do so, even if I don’t have any idea what I’m speaking about.

Dani hated people who said ‘sorry’ like that, even more than she hated whisperers.

“But ’can’t’?” Annie went on, cocking an eyebrow at Dani. “It’s not very tolerant to go around telling people what they can and can’t say, Danielle.”

Danielle?! White noise clogged Dani’s ears again.

“I swear,” Annie said, shaking her head. “It’s always a morality contest with your generation. It is just –”

“Dani,” Dani grunted. “My name is Dani!”

“Do not speak over me.”

“You spoke over me first!” Dani’s voice turned into a squawk towards the end. Shit, shit, shit. “And I was talking to Rachel before, not to you. Do you even know what she di–?”

“You’re going to have to lower your voice.” Rachel laughed without mirth as she glanced around the pub. It was as if she herself hadn’t just been practically shouting at Paul across the table. “People are starting to look at us now.”

Dani’s head burned. She slammed a hand on the table. “I don’t care.”

Paul put out a hand, as though he was going to put it on her shoulder to calm her down. She flinched, jerking away from him in her seat, and he seemed to think better of it.

“Dani,” Jake said, tilting his head to see her from the other side of Paul. Jake was one of the more reasonable people left at the table, and his round face and thick beard gave him a soothing, teddy bear-like appearance, but Dani still didn’t trust that he wasn’t just talking down to her. Like she was a child having a tantrum. “Let’s talk this out, okay? What did Rachel do?”

“She… she…” Dani stopped pinching her beads and pointed across the table – not at Rachel, but at Annie. What Rachel did was significant, yes, but several things were screeching at Dani from inside her head, and Rachel’s thing wasn’t screeching the loudest right now.

“She said our generation is having a morality contest,” Dani said. “You’re upset about it, Annie, so that must mean... mean that you think you’re losing, and if that’s what you think –” She was getting out of breath. Too many words, too few seconds. “Then – then you must see that I’m being more moral than you, so you know there’s something wrong with what you're saying.”

Annie didn’t say anything in response.

Victory flashed briefly and hotly through Dani’s veins.

So... why did she feel like she was seconds away from crying? She wasn’t a child; she wasn’t about to be reprimanded by a parent or a teacher for speaking her mind. She was an adult. She could make her own choices, and –

Oh, right. She’d just pointed at and then yelled at her boss. She’d probably just thrown away the only day job she’d ever found bearable, as well as the only co-worker she’d ever genuinely liked.

Ah, crabs. Payton. How had it taken her so long so get around to worrying about Payton?

“Oh,” Dani announced, sliding out of the booth. She realised too late that she had taken her boots off, but it didn’t seem dignified to sit down again to put them back on. She looked Rachel square in the eye – for about half a second. Then, she lowered her gaze towards Payton’s glass. “Rachel put alcohol in Payton’s drink without them knowing.”

“You sat there,” Rachel choked out softly, “and said nothing, Dani!” There were tears in her eyes now, her face pale with terror.

Throat tight, hands trembling, and shoeless, Dani got up and went looking for Payton.

___

Payton had thought they’d need to force a finger or two down their throat to start emptying their stomach of the unexpected poison, but it turned out that their tolerance was low enough – or their panic high enough – for their body to begin rejecting it all by itself.

The force of the first heave had their ribs pitching inwards, their belly muscles folding in on themselves. A strangled cry came rolling out of their throat along with a mouthful of frothy vomit, and it took everything in their power not to let the crying continue.

No...

They... they had cried so much back then. They had cursed and screamed and roared like they were trying to invoke some god to come and release them from the pain that they didn’t have the words to describe. No words except no. They had always told themself that they didn’t know why they cried and shouted so much when they were intoxicated, but deep down, they realised that had always been a lie.

It was because they didn’t think it mattered. Whether they were stone-cold sober and coherent, or black-out drunk with vomit and snot dripping down their face, nobody listened to them or took them seriously. At least when they were drunk, they could make noise and act like an ass and convince themself that it was okay, that it was only to be expected, that they were free of the consequences.

All of it a lie.

No.

The tingling in their limbs felt like phantom tentacles reaching up from a dark pit, pulling and sucking them under –

Payton’s belly curdled and they spewed harshly into the toilet. They let out a dry sob that nearly ripped their lungs loose. All those years, all that work, all those miles between their past haunts and their current life... and they were back here. A different pub in a different city, but still the same old them. Hours of therapy; long, honest conversations with Autumn about their past; all those times Autumn had taken their face in her hands, tears in her eyes, and told them she was proud of them.

All of it was washed away in less than fifteen minutes.

Because it was pointless, wasn’t it? The thing they had once drank to escape – the helpless knowledge that nobody was listening to them – was still very much real. It lived inside them, keeping them small, keeping them polite, keeping them trapped as the pathetic, useless teenager who was never good enough...

No...

Annie’s constant criticism of the little things Payton did differently at the shop; the way Dani bent the uniform rules, only during Payton’s shifts; Donnacha... Donnacha’s outright refusal to listen to Payton’s side of the story when it came to their relationship with Autumn –

“No,” Payton whimpered, gripping the sides of the toilet with both hands. The thought of Autumn finding out about this made their soul feel like it was withering. Something slipped up their throat – a belch, a sob, a hiccup?

Even though their stomach had been completely vacated, the lingering smell and taste of the vodka kept their insides twisting and writhing. They wanted to hug their aching belly, but they had no hands left to do it. They were shaking, wilting against the toilet bowl like a dying flower; they’d surely headbutt the porcelain if they let go.

Frantic heartbeats assaulted their eardrums. They could barely see, barely breathe, barely... barely believe this was happening.

No.

___

Dani was glaring at two stick figures – one with their legs spread, the other with their feet together under a knee-length dress – and having a crisis.

Why were gendered bathrooms even a thing? Cubicle stalls existed for privacy. Lesbians and gay men existed, who used the bathrooms of the biological sex they were attracted to. Besides that, people who were inclined to trespass would and could do so, regardless of whatever little plaque was stuck outside of it. She found it hard to believe that anybody woke up one morning, decided to go out to a public bathroom and be a perv, and then end up being discouraged when they found a little plaque on the door that did or didn’t depict a human in a skirt.

Why had it taken her so long to question this? And why was she questioning it now, of all times!?

Right. Because back at the cafe, there were gender-neutral toilets and gender-neutral changing rooms for the employees. If that hadn’t been the case, maybe Dani would have had some idea of which way Payton would choose to go if they were forced to.

She flashed back to the moment she’d walked into the changing room earlier, and seen Payton’s binder for the first time. Right, right... Did that mean they saw themself as more masculine than feminine?

She pushed open the door to the men’s bathroom, leaning as far into the room as she could while keeping her feet outside and clutching the side of the door. A middle-aged dude was finishing up at a urinal, and he jumped when he saw her.

“Wrong place, love,” he half-smiled.

“Oh, gee, thanks, love,” Dani said, employing her Hollywood starlet voice in order to stop herself from retorting with something unsavoury. And then she yelled out, making the man jump on his way to the sinks; “Payton?!”

After waiting for a few seconds, Dani huffed, noting that none of the cubicles were locked anyway, and no feet were visible under any of them.

She retracted her torso from the bathroom and ducked into the one next door.

“Payton?” she called out again.

Two women were by the sink, one of them washing their hands, the other touching up their lipstick with a bit of a sheepish expression.

“Maybe in there?” the one with wet hands said softly, nodding towards the only cubicle that had been locked. Sure enough, Dani noted the presence of feet near the bottom gap in the door. “Is she okay?”

“They.” The correction sprang out of Dani’s throat, already locked and loaded this time. “And... I dunno. Maybe. Payton? You okay?”

Dani’s heart felt like it’d just been dragged down into her stomach when the reply came.

“No! No, no, no.”

___

Payton’s lungs fluttered with the effort of breathing. A mixture of a smile and a grimace sliced their face as they heard Dani talking to the other bathroom occupants. The novelty of Dani gendering them correctly had worn off so quickly that Payton struggled to remember what that rush of serotonin and acceptance had even felt like.

Their teeth were chattering, their fingers still tingled with the knowledge that their internal chemistry had been altered, and their stomach lining was still painfully irritated –

They were powerless against the no blisters that burst on their lips, over and over again.

“Payton, open the door!” Dani screamed, and even though they were the one yelling no continuously, Payton thought screaming was a little over-the-top.

They weren’t dying. They knew that now. They just felt like they were dying.

“NO!” Payton sobbed lucidly amidst the rolling cries of despair. No, I won’t open the door. What on earth might they would unleash on her if they let her in? They had a reputation as the cool, easy-going supervisor; how could they ever face her at work if they were revealed as the fraud they were?

“I’m so sorry,” Dani’s voice said from the other side of the door. “I wasn’t in on it, but I also wasn’t – I wasn’t paying attention to what they were doing. And I should’ve been.”

Payton squeezed their eyes shut. As badly as they wanted to stay quiet, hoping she would go away, they couldn’t leave her hanging. That was what they did. They soothed people.

“It’s... okay,” they croaked, their voice reverberating in the porcelain bowl. They recoiled. Ew. Was that how they sounded right now?

“No?” Dani retorted. “It’s not. It’s awful.”

Payton coughed, feeling the last of their fighting energy drain out of them. She was right. This was awful. It would be very nice if this could, somehow, not be happening.

Panic flooded their lungs again like liquid, and this time they were struck through with fear, because they didn’t feel they had it in them to continue panicking, and they definitely didn’t want to wind up unconscious next to a toilet –

“Come on, get out of there,” Dani was begging. Her voice sounded strange. Maybe Payton was imagining things again, like they’d imagined her without her boots on earlier.

The door of the next cubicle down creaked. A toilet lid slapped down. There was a muffled thump...

Goosebumps pricked the back of Payton’s neck. They tilted their head back, all the way, so that they were facing towards the ceiling.

The sight of a head hovering above the cubicle divider was unexpected and unsettling enough to make Payton’s breath catch, and once it did, it was like a cycle had been broken. They blinked, once, twice, three times, and suddenly became hyper-aware of their surroundings.

“I... Hi?” they croaked pathetically.

“Hi, boss,” Dani muttered. Payton wondered if that was her version of being playful.

Payton scrambled to flush the toilet, their face burning at the thought of Dani getting an ariel view of their neon yellow vomit.

“Get... get d-down,” Payton stammered. “Y-you’re gonna fall–”

“Open the door and I’ll get down.”

They reached up for the latch and then sank back down, still catching their breath. The tears on their face were starting to solidify. They couldn’t bear to look Dani in the eye when she circled the cubicles to stand in front of theirs, so they kept their gaze low.

A dry laugh popped out of them, like it’d been lodged in their throat and then squeezed.

Dani’s socks were black and covered in tiny green alien heads. She was standing on the tiles in her socks.

“You... actually took your shoes off.”

“Yeah, so?” Dani growled.

“Nothing, I just – I thought I was hallucinating earlier.”

“I find it more comfortable.”

Payton nodded, sniffling as they felt their nose run. They felt as though they were already in the throes of a mini hangover – the hollow pangs of nausea in their stomach, the ringing in their head, the burning agony in their throat.

But worst of all was the shame. The storybook of images of themself – ariel view, as though they’d been up on that toilet alongside Dani, watching their own pathetic display from above – flipped its pages over in their mind.

“So, did – did you have, like, a board somewhere at home that said ‘something-hundred and something days since last drink’, or...?”

Payton almost choked at the image. Why had they never thought of that? They’d only ever kept track of their sobriety on the calendar in their head, but even that would have to be reset to zero now. “No.”

“Mmm. Sorry.” Dani shuffled her stockinged feet. “I never know what to say in... Well, any situation. Ever.”

“You’re fine,” Payton sighed. A part of them noted how exhausting it was, to still be the one to comfort everybody else when something bad had just happened to them. They tried to squash that part. Dani was here, trying to help them.

Besides, they felt most like themself when they were making others feel at ease. Maybe they didn’t need to be so ashamed of that.

“Do you... need something?” Dani asked the question stiffly and awkwardly; was this how she took down orders from customers at the coffee shop?

Payton wanted the exact same thing they’d wanted about an hour ago.

“I want to go home,” they whispered.

“Samesies.” Dani’s feet rearranged themselves again. “Do you need me to help you up?”

The reluctance in her voice made Payton want to say no. But they were dizzy and weak, and tired of saying no. The thought of just a little bit of help brought tears of relief to their eyes.

Payton looked up from the floor. Dani’s appearance hadn’t changed at all from the moment she’d turned up for her shift that afternoon, but Payton got the feeling that they were looking at a whole different version of her.

“I... I mean, would that be okay, Dani?”

“Yes. Of... course.” Dani had clenched her fists by her side, and was looking at Payton as though they were a cliff that she was supposed to step off the side of. “Just don’t grab onto my waist, shoulders, back, or sides.”

#Lucyverse Payton #Lucyverse Dani #Lucyverse #OC sickfic #sickfic #emeto sickfic #emeto #emeto fic #alcohol #alcohol mention #angst fic #spiking mention #misgendering mention #gender dysphoria mention #emetophilia #whump fic

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esther-dot · 11 months

Note

Half Jonsa again, I wanted to thank you for your lovely reply and taking the time to respond to me. I really appreciate it. I especially liked your point about the tragic romance; I feel like an issue fandom runs into a lot is that there's a difference between pointing something out that the story is doing versus wish-fulfilment.

I don't like the double-standard between L/yanna and what I feel to be his deconstruction of the fifteen year old boyking (Paul Atreides) via Robb, for instance. Holding the tension of romance in L/yanna's story (because I subscribe to the double model - tragic romance as well as self-driven prophetic fallout) versus the political deconstruction is really difficult for me.

I'll give you complete full credit on this one: this is more like identifying GRRM's storytelling faults as opposed to really thinking about the thematic consequences of R/L.

(Continuation of this convo)

Don't even mention it! I'm so happy you came back and elaborated on your thoughts. I’m still thinking about what you said regarding Brienne’s quote!

I feel like an issue fandom runs into a lot is that there's a difference between pointing something out that the story is doing versus wish-fulfilment.

I was guilty of that myself for GoT. I mean, half of what I thought, I still think because of certain non-subjective things D&D chose to do, but when I saw that last shot of s8, I realized, this was in their heads all along, the ending they were working to for Jon, and I couldn't believe I was so sucked into Jonsa I hadn't caught on to that thread. So, yes, first hand experience with it!

However, I do have to defend the expectation for better re: Jon and Sansa in the books. When Sansa says there are no heroes and then Jon does the exact thing she wanted a hero to do for her, when Sansa says they only want her for her claim while Jon is out there refusing to take Winterfell on the grounds that it is Sansa's, we have reason to think, well, it's only a matter of time before he repudiates the other point of despair too. Obviously, I have said, this could be a secret wedding and they can't ultimately be together, that alone doesn't mean a happy ending. But the big factor that makes me question a tragic ending for Jon is that if Jon were to go to the Wall or be exiled, King Bran is not gonna be the answer to the criticism of a weak/unjust Robert that we hoped he would be.

Holding the tension of romance in L/yanna's story (because I subscribe to the double model - tragic romance as well as self-driven prophetic fallout)

I'm behind on this line of thought, I'm only now really grappling with the mess of R/L. I don't care to think of Rhaegar much because I dislike that type of character, so I don't have much to say other than his choices are the arena in which Jon has been and will play, so I know you don't think jonsa is the redemption of it, but Jon will be the response to Rhaegar. I would think the Paul Atreides discussion will be happening between Jon, Bran, Dany, the messiah-like figures, and we all know how destructive that will be for Dany, we know Bran will rise to power, possibly sacrificing himself/personal happiness for the sake of peace for his people, Jon may be the middle ground there?

I read Robb more of an answer to the romanticization of boy kinds/young heroes going to war etc. Seeing it all through Cat's eyes and her anguish keeps it very grounded for me, but again, I didn't read Dune so I'm not sure which connections you're drawing there.

This,

We are only human, and the gods have fashioned us for love. That is our great glory, and our great tragedy.

I think, is something that Martin actually wants to talk about, it is why women die giving birth or protecting their children, it is why brothers die for love of their sisters. It happens over and over, he keeps circling it, delivering versions of it, he finds it heartrending, he finds it beautiful. He is interested in marrying things that seem too far apart to relate. He does that all the time, and that I think is where I misalign with him. Sometimes his belief that these work in concert or two extremes can exist in the same place...I can't quire buy.

#dot chat #asoiaf and dune

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demon-blood-youths · 20 days

Text

An Officer's Corruption - Twenty

Hello everyone, this is Deamon-mun or Dani-mun here for part nineteen. Like Peahen-mun of @the-silver-peahen-residence said, it's getting good.

If you wish to see how or where everything is going, you can follow up on the chapters down below.

||Previous Chapters 1-7||((Click here))

((Previous chapters 8-13)) (Click here))

Part Fourteen

Part Fifteen

Part Sixteen

Part Seventeen

Part Eighteen

Part Nineteen

((Your reading part Nineteen))

---- Warning ---

NSFW

Sexual Themes

Tender Moments

Friends with Benefits

Drug Implied mention

----

||OVA Chapters 1-7|| ((Written by me and Peahen of course) (Click here))

---- Summary ---

Officer Violet wishes to talk with Itadori after what she just learned. How would this go? While they talked, Megumi and Kisho have the cell to themselves so how are they're going to spend their night without Itadori? Also, Kinie Ger is now eating dinner with Sukuna. Meanwhile...Oblivion goes to call in a favor to find more about Yuuka.

How would everyone's night turn out?

-----

Jinx thought of leaving Itadori alone. Maybe like two hours or maybe the night. An hour has been passed and it is still making her upset. She doesn't know why she's upset. But there's something about what Kisho and Megumi told her. She takes a water break and was now mulling over her thoughts. But now....she needs to say this. She has to or else...or else! Ugh! Time to go back and tell him!

Walking back to the cell where Itadori is being confined. She takes a breath and says her name.

"Itadori..."

"Hm?"

Itadori is in his cell while he is doing handstands inside his cell. Jinx gulps as she sees the back muscles, abs and alethic body with a light sheen of sweat.

Jinx takes a breath. You can do this, Jinx. You can do this.

"Yes? Officer Violet?" Itadori pauses on his handstand as he looks at her through the rectangular window.

"Why didn't you tell me that the other prisoner provoked you?" She asked.

"It doesn't excuse what I did," Yuji said simply as he continued his handstands before doing push-ups. Jinx sighed. "I know but he said other things that must of set you off. I'm going to be honest...but I don't take you for a person that goes off at every little thing like Bakugo does."

Itadori doesn't respond.

"Why did you help me back there?"

"Huh?" Itadori said as he was now sitting and was about to do crunches. Jinx reiterates, "You helped me fight against Akane and Snake Woman? Why? You could have left me and made a break for it. What's the reason?"

"There's no reason...I just do it because I felt like it." Itadori said. Jinx isn't convinced, "Is that all? So what you did at lunch is no reason for all?"

Feeling a bit frustrated, Itadori sighs. "Officer Violet, I did it because you were having trouble fighting against that lady, and her snake demon. And you were watching over me since you're in charge of me so you're just doing your job. It was the right thing to do."

"Right thing to do?" Jinx repeated. Itadori raises, "Yeah. I meant I say back there. To be honest, you got a good fighting style but you're having trouble so that's why. "

No response.

Itadori waited for a response but got nothing. This got him to raise a brow, "Officer Violet?"

Still no response.

"Jinx?" He said his first name. Then a sound is heard. The door begins to unlock and soon, Jinx opens it as the cap and hair hide her eyes as she begins to walk over to Itadori. Itadori is now standing tall as he looks over to her.

"Don't....lie to me." Jinx begins, "You did it because of me!" Jinx yelled, closing her fist. "Your friends told me why you did it! They said that one of the prisoners that if they win the fight, they're going to make you serve them and bring female guards, they even mentioned me by looks. You fought the Snake Devil because of me! Besides...why do all that! Especially after meeting your lawyer?! Especially pulling that on me!" Jinx said now upset.

"Why are you trying to say?!" Jinx said, "Besides...I'm strong enough! I am! So strong that I can even take what you give out? Like..like...the other night! So stop underestimating me, Yuji Itadori!" Jinx said as she looked red in the face.

As she said all this, she didn't even look up to Yuji Itadori until she felt a hand taking her cap off and patting her head. "I don't underestimate you. In fact, I kinda like you a lot seeing you fight. But I don't want to see you get hurt. It makes me not want to forgive you after talking how strong you were."

"Forgive me?! If anything, I should be forgiving you for what you just pulled on me, the other day!" Jinx puffed her cheeks. "And to tell you the truth! I won't forgive you for that at all!"

"The other day?" Yuji blinked before realizing blowing a raspberry, "Oh...is that when after you told me to go to jail? Even though...we're already in jail?" He said with a teasing smile.

Jinx's cheeks flushed red, hearing, "D-don't remind me, mister!" Jinx points at him. "I-I'm not dumb."

"I didn't say that nor thinking about that."

"And...and...I'm not weak enough to fall for your tricks!" Jinx exclaimed. Yuji raised a brow, "Tricks?"

"You know what I'm talking about Itadori Yuji!" Jinx yelled. "Where...you made me...you know!" Jinx yelled. Yuji hums as he gets it now. "Oh...Like this?" Just as quick as tiger, he goes to back Jinx into a corner with his hand trapping her hands above her and pinning her against the wall. Jinx is now screaming inside as she is in shock.

"H-hey! I don't mean like that!"

"And what do you mean?" Yuji asked. Jinx is biting back her cheek, "I-I won't lose! You heard me! Whatever you do to me, I won't give in! I s-swear it!"

"Really?" Yuji asked.

"Yes! I dare you to try! I won't lose!" Jinx said with full confidence. Yuji then smiled so mischievously that made Jinx shiver. "Alright then...let's see what you got."

---- In the other cells ----

"Nnhng...hey Megumi..."

"Hm?"

"Is Itadori going to be okay?" Kisho asked as he laid his head on his lap. Megumi answers, "Yeah. Itadori is going to be fine." He said, looking outside his cell. It was nighttime now.

"And w-what about Officer Violet?" Kisho asked. Megumi pats his head to assure, "She is going to be fine too. Besides Itadori likes her the moment he saw her. That's what I think."

"Really?" Kisho asked.

"Really." Megumi nods. Kisho utters a soft groan before he asks, "Okay..also....uh...one more thing"

"Hm?"

"C-can we take a break?" Kisho asked nervously as he looks to be flushed and is now shaking a bit. To which Megumi scowls and quickly smacks his butt making the other yelped.

"Like I said...your punishment is long overdue, Kisho." He said as he went to turn the dial up with the remote making Kisho gasp and shudder as the vibrator hits all the right spots in his ass. He can't help but moan. He was forced to sit up by Megumi as the shadow sorcerer goes to bite his neck making Kisho whimper.

"B-biut? But...you can't punish me for what I said to Officer Violet. She has to know that Itadori is a good person!" Kisho cried. Megumi sighs, "You don't think I know that?" He goes to pet Kisho's head. "I'm not upset with you trying to defend Itadori to Officer Violet and explained the situation to her."

"Huh? S-so...why?"

"That's why I said you're going to get a reward after your punishment." Megumi tells him, "Besides..you escaped your punishment because we were interrupted by that break-in. So I'm going to follow through." He said as he went to finger him, making Kisho moan softly. "Since Itadori isn't here, it means we got a lot of time on our hands. So let's take advantage of it." He smiles darkly.

"Hnngn..." Kisho said as Megumi continued to tease him by touch. He goes to rub his nipples while the dildo is in his butt, throbbing like non-stop. Kisho whines and moans as is slowly breaking down. "M-megumi!"

"Make sure to keep your legs apart," Megumi ordered. Kisho tries to move but it's getting hard since his arms are in cuffs and tied together. "Yes...yes..sir." Kisho said before his eyes are now being blindfolded. He whimpers as Megumi teases him further with a chuckle.

Tonight is going to be a long night...

Megumi wonders how Itadori and Officer Violet are doing right now. Probably still talking.

---- Itadori's Solidary Cell -----

"S-stop! Nuugh..."

Her and her big mouth. Why did she say that?! God! What made her do it!? She did want to prove that to Itadori that she won't lose to him and his tricks. Ugh! THis is so bad. So really bad.

"Didn't you said that you can withstand this, Officer Violet?"

"Y-yes!" Jinx squeaked. "But never like this!" She cried. Right now, Officer Violet is in a compromising position. She is hung over on Itadori's lap and her pants and panties are down to her knees. Her jacket is off and is on the floor, and only her black tee remains. Right now, Itadori is fingering her as she is over his lap like she is about to spank but she is getting weird sensations when Itadori is moving his fingers inside of her while sitting on the bed. As if he is searching for something..

"Ahnnn...nnhng...dannng it." Jinx grits her teeth as she doesn't want to look over her shoulder, she is looking down on the ground and clutching one of Itadori's thighs. These sensations feel so weird...why does it feel good but so weird?! She cannot explain but then...she lets out a loud pleasurable cry as Itadori rubs something inside of her.

"W-what?" Jinx's face blushes as she glances over her shoulder. Itadori chuckles, "It looks like I found your sweet spot, little kitty cat." He smiles as he goes to curl his fingers inside of her making her cry out. "AHH!" She goes to her legs but Itadori makes sure to keep still.

"Now, now. No need for that." Itadori scolds her. "Now let me make you feel good."

"H-how is this good..aahh.." Jinx replied before she arches her back, unwittingly moan out loud. Itadori does it again and now he goes to quicken his fingers making Jinx's eyes widen. "Ah! W-wait! S-slow down! You're going to....aahh..nugh! AH!"

Then Jinx came all over Itadori's clothed pants as fluids came out. Itadori smiles, "You came. Not bad."

Jinx is gasping and panting as she has tears in her eyes, "T-this doesn't count.." She said.

"Oh. It doesn't?" Itadori replies, "Okay...let's try this." He goes to change Jinx's position from her lap and lays her on the bed on her back with her legs spread. She felt incoming heat between her thighs. "Wait..wait...wait! What are you about to do?"Jinx looks anxious but deep down, unknownst to her. A bit excited. She sees Itadori holding her legs apart as he goes to lower his head between them. What is he going to do?!

"Oh...this." And right away, Jinx felt a hot muscle at her folds, licking and sucking. "AAAHH! I-Itadori!" Jinx arches her back as she grips the sheets tightly as she feels it. Her reddish dark bangs cover her eyes that are widen and her pupils shudder at the pleasure she's getting. With her mouth open, revealing her canine teeth. A long string of moans came from her mouth.

This sensation makes her moan and cry as Itadori is....eating her. With his tongue? God...is he really eating her?! He is really a wild tiger! He's so crazy for doing this. So strong that he holds her apart in a tight grip while he continues to eat her like this.

Itadori is slurping and licking at her folds with his tongue. The sweet aroma from her clit is so addictive he can't get enough of it.

Tears form at the corner of Jinx's eyes as she feels a great sensation. A pleasurable one that is so good that made her moan so much, she couldn't stop herself.

Jinx doesn't think she would last any longer.

----- Somewhere...in the city ----

Warden Kinie Ger never thought she would be invited to someone else over dinner. This is so weird. She never experienced this before. Sure, she goes on dinners with friends but not alone and with the opposite sex.

This is so strange.

Why is Sukuna Ryomen interested in her?

"Is the food to your liking?" His voice got her to lift her head.

"Yes. The food is really good, Mr. Ryomen." The dish is better than good. It's amazing. Amazing than what she cooks. The dish is flank steak with roasted potatoes with herbs with the wine she brought.

She wonders if the gift she handed over to him subpar. She wonders if what she wears is appropriate. It was a sleeveless black blouse with a bow on it with short pants dark leggings and plaid soles. It was a bit chilly. Plus it was modest and elegant.

"Good to hear." Sukuna said as he wondered what she was thinking. She looks to be... hesitant. Is he coming too forward? No, she must be settling in after seeing the sort of place he's living for the time being. As if she is very careful about where to sit and keeps her hands to herself.

"Now, now. No need to be uptight. Just relax. It's not like I bite."

Kinie Ger gives him a look, "Rest assured. It's not that. I'm not nervous around you if that's what you ask." She said. She wonders if this is a good time to talk to him. What to talk about? Should she asking some questions, but what questions? How can she ask a question without sounding too personal like family or work? Kinie can guess what sort of work that Ryomen does. Still...there is one.

"Tell me...are you offering this deal for the sake of Itadori?" She asked. "Truthfully, it's understandable. Because it seems like the Six Claws shows us that their enemies would be willing to break in."

"Correct." Sukuna smiles, "Very perceptive."

"I mean...it isn't that impressive.. " Kinie said, before sipping her wine a bit. Just a bit. She doesn't like wine but she will tolerate for the sake of her host.

"Still. Most people don't get and would refuse but you on the other hand think hard on this and that break-in just gives you a reason to go with this idea." Said Sukuna. "By the way...why you didn't suspect me behind the break-in?"

"Huh?" Kinie blinks. "Why would I? That would be against your plan? Why the reason to bring the lawyer along? It doesn't make sense and a break-in could leave things messy and loose ends. That said...you're the kind of person who seems confident in winning a legal battle. "

"Correct." Sukuna smiles.

KInie narrows her eyes at this. "Are you trying to test me to see how smart I am?"

"No. Just curious. Besides..you have already proven yourself. After all, why did you hire those officers from those different precincts? When I heard about who is looking after the Six Claws and my brother." He said. "It's surprising but it makes sense. Officer Vanguard is a good-hearted and her.....special way of handling prisons is quite something. Something that Six Claws were trying to figure out. Officer Violet is a good match-up as she is good at combat. While the third one, Officer Vin Shia makes sure to keep everything in order given those two's personalities."

Kinie blinks before sighing, "You know me too well, Ryomen." She said with a small smile. Speaking of which how is Officer Violet doing with Itadori. Unlike the Six Claws, it seems like Itadori is an easy mission to handle.

----- Back at prison ----

"AAH!" She climaxes again. Jinx falls onto the bed as she is gripping the pillow close to her face while covering her face with an arm. She looks to the ceiling with half-lidded eyes as they are now glowing yellow-red. Then she felt the hot muscle coming back at her folds.

"S-stop! Stop! I had enouggh!" Jinx pleaded with her eyes closed after she came three times due to Itadori's tongue. She has been panting and gasping npn-stop ever since she came. Itadori sits up as he licks her essence on his lips, "What's wrong? Don't tell you're giving up now, officer." He teased.

"Hnnng..." Her eyes are closed as her legs are trembling.

"Unless..." Itadori's tone changes to a low tone, almost like a growl, "You want me inside of you. Don't you?" This made her yelp as she went to open her eyes to see the tiger now up close.

"I-I..."

"Don't worry...I make sure to feel you good like I said. But first..." Itadori proceeds to take her top before turning her on her stomach. He rolls her shirt up, revealing a pink bra before he proceeds to unhook her bra.

"Wait...w-what are you?" Jinx looks nervous now.

"It will get uncomfortable and it will get a little sweaty in here so~" He goes to touch Jinx's breasts making her yelp and Itadori goes to fondle. Jinx gasps as she can't believe these strong hands are on her bare boobs. Jinx whines and moans at his touch while Itadori puts her bra and top right next to her.

"There we go. Good, right?"

"Um...err..." Jinx doesn't know what to say. Then she cry when she felt him pull her nipples gently. She goes to move her legs but she can't move as Itadori pins her down with his weight against her. "Don't worry, I got you." He whispered to her ear making her tremble. His touch and voice weakened her ever before. "J-just get to it already!" Jinx cried.

"Get to what?" Itadori plays dumb.

"T-the...the...main event!" Jinx cried, clutching her sheets as Yuji keeps on playing with her boobs and nipples.

"Main event?" Itadori goes to nip at her neck, making her whine. "Y-you know what I mean, Y-yuji!" She said.

"You mean this?" Yuji asked. Jinx felt something big at her behind, making her blush. Eh?! Hold on...is that?

Jinx widens her eyes, her lip trembling. "Is that what I think?"

"Yeah, it is." Itadori said.

It's so big. Is he really going to put that inside of her? She might break. Oh god. She will break! Jinx decides to change her mind, "Wait...a second. How about we-"

"Sorry. No time to hold back now. Besides...that would mean you're giving up, right?"

"I-I-I-I..." Jinx winced as she felt Itadori's hard length now sliding between her folds. "Nugh! Wait...wait...wait!"

"Relax. Just relax. I will be gentle,." He tells her gently, he goes to caress her one of her breasts and continues to nip and kiss at her neck. The touches are so distracting that Jinx doesn't notice until Yuji begins to inch his way inside of her. Jinx is whimpering as she closes her eyes tightly. Then she felt lips on hers. Jinx widened her eyes at this before closing them as the kiss became deep. She moans into the kiss as she does not realize that Yuji is now inside and snaps his hips and is now into her, making her moan loudly.

Yuji breaks the kiss and pants. Jinx pants. "Ah...ha...ha.." While Yuji calms her with sweet words that are working. "Y-yuji!" She said his name without thinking. After letting her adjusted to his size, Yuji thrusts inside of her, slowly and deeper. Jinx moans. Yuji groans.

"Ah...ha...ah..so-so big!" Jinx moaned. She never thought something like this would happen. It's so good. Yuji goes to fondle her breast as he kisses her neck some more as he continues his deep thrusts. Jinx moans.

"That's right. Let it all out, Jinx." He said her name in a way. Jinx whines, she can't control her moans because of him. "Ahhh...uhhh...huh..ha..ha..." She utters.

'How can this? This is so good. So very good? Is that what it is, the other two nights?! F-fuck. This is so good. Wait...no...wasn't this supposed to be a challenge she was supposed to win? Ack! How does he do it?! Oh god....is it so big and strong! I can't....

"Y-yuji!" Jinx said his name. Hearing his name like that from the Hellcat made Yuji growl and start to quicken his thrusts. "W-wait! Hold on! S-slow down!" Jinx yelled, "Ahhh!" She felt him hit that nub, over and over again. She clutches her sheets.

"W-wait! Something is happening! I felt like I'm going to b-blow up!?"

"That's you coming again," Yuji assures her. "Go ahead...do it." He said. Jinx bit her bottom lip. No! She can't! Not again. However...

"If you don't...I will keep going and going till you lose it, Jinx." He growls into her ear. That domineering tone gives her goosebumps with her hair standing up like a cat. Jinx's moans increased in volume. Yuji keeps going and going, non-stop making the bed creak and Jinx's toes curl.

To make sure Jinx comes again, Yuji goes to change the positions as she is now laying her back on Yuji's chest. Both of her breasts are being grabbed and are being moved in a circular motion while Yuji thrusts up in a jackhammering motion. Jinx lets out lustful cries.

"That's it. Savor it, Jinx. Let go." Yuji growled, panting. Jinx shut her eyes tightly as she lets out more moans. She can't move her legs because she is pounded without mercy.

My head. I can't think anymore. This is so good! So very good. I-I can't....wait..something is coming. It's coming! It's coming! It's Coming!

"YUJI! F-FUCK! YUJI! " Jinx calls out his name as she cums on his cock. Yuji groans as he feels Jinx's warm essence on his girth. Jinx collapses on him as she breathes against his neck. Yuji goes to kiss her once. Jinx lets out a weak moan into the kiss. The kiss became heated and deep now as Yuji snaked his arm around her waist and kept her like this close to his body.

"So...what do you think?" Yuji asked, breaking the kiss.

"Ah...ha...I....I...nnugh" Jinx has no words as she looks dazed and now out of it. Yuji chuckles at her reaction. "Anyway! Want to go again?"

"Eh?" Jinx blinked as she looks at Yuji in disbelief. "B-but we..."

"I have a lot of stamina so I can't wait to go again!" Yuji smiles. "I think I can keep up with a demon like yourself." He said before snapping his hips upwards into her, getting a moan out of her.

"Y-YujI!" Jinx cried.

"After all...we're just getting started." Said Yuji, making Jinx moans as Yuji starts the second round. How long would Jinx last?

------ Oblivion's office -----

"Ugh..." Oblivion runs her face with her hand as she cannot believe. At this point, if they give her any more shots after that. She is going to do something about it. This is not good.

After talking to Ophelia, she needs to find out about Yuuka. She needs information. Maybe there's a person to call about this. She goes to dial the number on her cell and waits for the other to pick up.

"Hello?"

"S-Shdwkyz." She said his name. "I need your help. I need your help into looking someone."

"It sounds serious. How can I help?"

"I need your help on getting information about Yuuka Nanako." He said.

To be continued...

#ic #rp #thesilverpeahenresidence #{ mature content }#older Ink #Officer;Au #YoungAdult;AU #An Officer's Corruption; drabble series #drabble;#drabbletime #drabble #vaninkthedragon #older ocs #an officer's corruption #An Officer's Corruption; Part 19

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itsclydebitches · 1 year

Text

Fandom: Ted Lasso

Pairing: Ted/Trent

Rating: Teen and Up

Word Count: 1,808

Summary:

With AFC Richmond hosting their very own biographer, Ted wants to update his contact list to include one Mr. Independent.

Unfortunately, that means Trent must undergo the mortifying ordeal of taking a selfie.

(Fic also below the cut!)

Howdy morning, evening, or whenever you get around to reading this, Trent! I was wondering if you might do me a little favor? Now that the illustrious Mr. Independent is a bonafide member of the AFC, I was hoping to secure your digital Hancock for my humble lists of contacts. Don’t you worry now, I wouldn’t release such a valuable piece to the masses without getting permission from you first ;)

Trent stared down at his phone, right hand snapping a hair-tie rhythmically against his wrist. He’d long since memorized the ridiculous message, but staring provided a comfortable illusion, especially among the hostile environment of the club. He was simply checking his email, browsing the news, any number of legitimate, everyday tasks that didn’t include agonizing over a text sent by Ted Bloody Lasso.

It had taken him an embarrassingly long time to decipher the message, a journey that included a deep dive into the absurdity of American slang. How was he supposed to know that a “Handcock” was someone’s signature? Based on what little Trent recalled from a Year 10 civics class, his people hadn’t been too pleased with that declaration and were far from inclined to linguistically celebrate it. Still, to think that if a revolt hadn’t occurred over two-hundred years ago, the world never would have produced the unique enigma that was currently leading the AFC charge...

Trent huffed. It was too early to wax poetic about Midwestern accents and cowboy aesthetics.

Not that there was ever a good time for that.

Was this his fall from grace then? Reduced to investigating - if one could even call it that - American eccentricities until he realized with a start, at two-fucking-three AM the night before, that Ted was asking for a selfie?

Perhaps. Probably. Trent couldn’t regret it though.

“Out of the way, wanker.”

No, not even now.

Jamie flipped him off as he passed, not bothering to make eye contact. Behind him Dani stumbled a bit through the asshole routine, but rallied and threw out a similar gesture. Trent mustered a sardonic smile and tipped an imaginary hat his way. He thought, as they rounded the corner, that Dani might have been fighting a smile.

At least someone here didn’t hate him.

Trent’s phone buzzed.

Two. Two someones.

Morning, Mr. Independent! I’m channeling your famous White Rabbit and running late, late, late for a very important date - my meeting with you, that is. I figured since fifteen wasn’t much worse than ten, I’d tack on a few extra minutes and snag myself some energy juice. You want a cup? Or are coffee orders top secret among you journalistic folks?

Trent breathed deeply in through his nose, out through his mouth. Yeah. It was way too early for this.

Bad enough that the man spoke like a perpetual sunshine machine, but did he have to text that way too? Trent rubbed his eyes beneath his glasses and tried to decide which of those increasingly insane statements he could reply to. Not the technical definition of a “date” - no, no, no, no - and Carroll’s works had left a soft spot under Trent’s heart that he couldn’t bear to poke just yet, so he settled for the easiest of corrections:

No coffee, but I’d be grateful for a tea if you’re willing. Just an Earl Gray, plain.

There, that was simple enough for the American to manage (Trent could add the embarrassing amounts of sugar and milk he preferred in the semi-privacy of the break room.) He should have known that Ted would be prompt - the accommodating bastard - because those three dots immediately popped into existence, going nowhere and making him twitchy the longer they faded in and out, in and out.

Higgins passed while he was waiting, Trent’s first and likely only genuine greeting of the day. He felt a little guilty for waving him off the moment Ted’s text popped into existence... but only a little.

Good golly gosh who is this? What stranger is gracing my phone asking for - *shudders* - tea on this otherwise bright, beautiful morning? If only I had a contact photo to identify such a silly person...

Ted, you texted me.

Who is ‘Me’?

TED.

Trent never used all caps when texting. Bloody hell, what had this man done to him?

That’s my name! No one’s worn it out yet. You gonna tell me yours?

You’re insufferable. You know it's Trent Crimm.

MR INDEPENDENT HIMSELF?? Well, knock my baby blue, hand-knit socks off, aren’t I the lucky one to be talking to such a celebrity. Of course, you could be Mr. Imposter for all I know. I’ve played enough Among Us not to be tricked by your devious schemes. Only a photo will convince me of the truth!

Trent groaned. So they’d come full circle. Honestly, the man was insufferable... though perhaps he’d have to contact the writers of the Oxford English Dictionary and get them to update the definition, because ‘insufferable’ wasn’t supposed to make your heart thrash and your hands shake.

Stuffing them deep into his pockets, Trent walked quickly down the hall, fingers fluttering until it probably looked like there were literal ants in his pants - fuck, but he was even starting to think like the man. Insanity catching, Trent slipped into one of the out of the way storage rooms, eyes peeled for the kitman (he had a tendency to pop up in the most unexpected places) before finally allowing himself to open the camera app.

He immediately grimaced. Trent was looking every inch his forty-eight years today, the lines on his face - too few of them from smiles - appearing almost crevice-like after a weekend of screaming toddler. The spring weather had whipped his hair into a frenzy and there was a slight blemish developing on his left cheek. No one had ever told teenage Trent that you still got acne into adulthood and that was probably a damn good thing, considering the crisis he would have had about it. Looking at the mess staring back at him, Trent supposed he could just copy one of his bio pics from google... but something told him that Ted wouldn’t settle for anything less than an original.

Was it even legal for someone his age to be taking selfies? Surrounded by the athleticism of the footballers, the hard-hitting beauty of Rebecca and Keeley, to say nothing of whatever Ted himself had going on, Trent had been feeling a bit like the ugly duckling lately, working among swans. Oh yes, “the hair and whole vibe” he’d said, high off his firing and allowing himself, just that once, to let his mouth run away with him. Bikes and dad jokes and delusional flirting that could never, ever go anywhere. Amazing how the body of Jamie Tartt, or the hair of Dani Rojas could take the wind out of a newly out, gay man’s sails. If he snapped a picture the Instagram police would probably kick down the door. Delete that monstrosity at once, Mr. Crimm.

Trent sighed. But Ted had asked him for this and, mortifyingly, he couldn’t deny the man a thing. Not even the remnants of his pride.

“Asshole,” Trent whispered, pointedly ignoring the fond thread in his voice.

Before he could think better of it Trent lifted his phone and snapped a quick pic. A head-shot, no smiling (did that make him seem cool, or cold?) and just enough bad lighting that you could maybe pass off some of his exhaustion as shadows. Trent did not agonize over the image. He certainly didn’t hesitate over the send button, old criticisms ringing in his ears. They were faint though, spoken over by the present (I like your glasses) and Trent let his thumb fall before he could rethink three years worth of choices.

The answer was near immediate: a digital heart and the ‘ping’ of approval popping up over the pic. Trent felt his ears flame up beneath his hair.

There he is! Handsomer than the devil in a three-piece suit ;) ETA of horrible brown water in 10.

With what he'd never admit was a whimper, Trent gave into the impulse to bang his head against the wall. His big, idiot skull gave a satisfying ‘thunk’ against the wood.

“Ted Lasso is going to be the death of me.”

***

Thirteen minutes later Trent had tea, Ted’s attention, and an apology for being three minutes off, all of which suddenly made the day that much brighter. For a short, glorious time Trent basked in the addiction of small-talk with this man until work forced them both to part. The piece of Trent's soul that had read too much Gothic Romances in his youth itched to write something outrageous about that.

Trent had been so focused on Ted that he’d failed to notice Beard enter the office. Giving him a late but meaningful nod - he rounded out the trifecta of downstairs club members who didn’t want his head on a pike - he was surprised when the returning nod changed to a turn-around, Beard’s eyes honing in on Trent’s tea.

“Did you want to share?” he blurted and then sighed. Dammit. Couldn’t he ever say anything normal around these people?

But if Beard found the question at all odd, he didn’t show it. Then again, his threshold for ‘odd’ no doubt far exceeded Trent’s own.

“No,” he said. Then he blinked. The blink felt significant, though hell if Trent knew why. “Ted doesn’t buy anyone tea.”

“... Sorry?”

Beard moved to his desk, shrugging off his backpack. “Hates the stuff. Everything about it. Waiting for it to brew, what to add, the smell, how long to leave the bag in... told me once he’d get you all to admit to the ‘spectacular joke’ you were playing on him, no matter what it took. It's simple. Ted Lasso doesn’t do tea.” Beard paused then, seeming to evaluate Trent to a degree that made his skin crawl; like a schoolmarm sizing up the troublemaker. "You ever seen The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes?"

Trent stalled, thrown by the non sequitur. "Yes?" Then, so off-footed he could only offer more honesty: "It's one of my favorites."

"Hmm." There might have been an approving smirk there, hidden between beard and sunglasses. "You're the only glass of tea he'd be interested in."

Then Beard sat and opened his book, feet on the desk, conversation apparently closed.

Trent was left staring down at a takeaway cup of, yes, Earl Gray tea from the pocket of Ted Lasso, old metaphors running like rabbits around his head. He felt a heat in his cheeks and firmly told his legs to keep holding him upright; told his heart to restart again.

The only tea Ted would be interested in?

Taking a long, savoring sip, Trent decided that a bad selfie was well worth that miracle.

#Ted Lasso #Trent Crimm #Tedependent #Ted/Trent #Ted Lasso fic #it's been forever since I finished a fic for them!#feels good to be back <3

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